This is a really good hand for using Lebensohl in any natural competitive sequences. Over East's 2
bid, South now has two choices: a
fast 3
, which is more encouraging, and a
slow 3
(via 2NT-3
), which is 100%
competitive and not remotely invitational. If West bids 3
over 2NT, North will automatically pass (because they don't know what the 2NT bid is based on) and when this is passed round to South, they will also pass, because they're not prepared to compete to the 4-level, when their Spades are sat under West. End result 3
-2.
I can't really fault your line in 4
, in the sense that nothing is going to work against passive defence
unless West has Ax in Diamonds. I might have tried to find out a little more about the hand before I opened up the Diamonds myself, but you have to assume that East has the Queen of Spades or the hand is definitely unmakeable. Ideally, we want Opps to open up the Diamonds, so I might well take 3 rounds of Hearts ending in Dummy and run the Jack of Clubs. This doesn't endplay East, but it's possible they will exit with a Diamond rather than a Spade, seeing
KJx in Dummy (They may also assume partner has 5-card Spades [which gives you a singleton], so opening up the Spades will generate a discard for you). Like I said, nothing works on this layout, because Opps can always force you to open up the Diamonds.
This hand really about the bidding rather than the play, for me, however. Neither North or South have any "shape" and South has a very "quacky" hand, so the fact that NS don't really have enough hcp for game should determine the fact that we don't go that high. It's about having the methods that allow NS to make that determination.