tHe aces on BriDge
In this deal from the final of the Memphis Life Master Pairs, I assume that most of us would fall from grace and open the South hand one heart, thus ending up in four hearts.
At the table, South received a club lead and led a heart to the nine, jack and king. Declarer won the club return, pitching a spade, and played a heart to the ace. He then went to the diamond queen, ruffed a club, and ran the diamonds. West discarded a spade on the fourth diamond, so South simply played for the spade ace to be onside -- no dice.
By contrast, Sabine Auken reached four hearts on an auction where East had been able to double an artificial club call. When she got the lead of the club three (third from an even number, low from an odd number), she played for clubs to have been 3-6 originally. After running the diamonds, she exited with the third heart and endplayed West in trumps to lead spades.
Note that East should have put up the heart queen on the first round of the suit. Now declarer could not arrange the endplay no matter what he did.
At another table, when West was stewing over what to lead against four hearts, his opponent asked sympathetically if he would like some help and pulled out a card for him. West accepted the choice -- the heart three! This play forced East to put up the heart queen, and now declarer had no chance.
ANSWER: There is no vulnerability where this is an appropriate pre-emptive opening. With so much defense in the majors and such a feeble long suit, discretion is certainly the order of the day. You might tempt me to open three clubs -- but only in first seat at favorable vulnerability and if my club two were the 10.