Lots of food for hungry bridgeurs

Scott Adams, in one of his Dilbert cartoons, wrote, "Give a man a fish, and you'll feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and he'll buy a funny hat. Talk to a hungry man about fish, and you're a consultant."

The key word there is "hungry" - this deal has lots of food for discussion. First, what do you think of the auction? Second, what should West lead against three no-trump after the given sequence?

In the auction, some Souths would have opened two diamonds, but with four spades and a void, it would have been debatable. However, West had a clear-cut one-club opening. His count was minimum, but he would have had no rebid problems.

After North opened one heart, East's overcall was acceptable, especially as he was a passed hand. South might have responded one no-trump, but two diamonds was reasonable as he had already passed. Then the rest of the auction was predictable.

During a duplicate at Bridge Base Online, this exact auction occurred three times. Each time, West led the club queen. South won with dummy's king, overtook the diamond jack with his queen and drove out the ace, very happy to see the 3-3 split. Now South was sure to take at least one spade, two hearts, five diamonds and two clubs.

The Easts must have been hungry for a new partner! If only West had led his spade, East could have won with his ace and continued with the queen to dislodge the spade king from the South hand, declarer's lifeline to the diamond suit. Then the contract would have gone down one.