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Playing imps, with nobody vulnerable, what would you rebid with the south hand?
When I held this hand in the 1973 world championships, in Brazil, I rebid 1NT.
This is because, since my earliest rubber bridge days, I've followed a simple but important idea in constructive bidding: 3NT is the most likely contract, and you should do what you can to steer the auction in that direction.
OK, I admit, I love to bid the notrump first, because I enjoy playing
the hand and sometimes have been known to play them better than my
partner (especially in certain rubber bridge games I play in).
But when playing with a strong partner, you also want to try to reach notrump from the right side of the table, the side where the opening lead is coming up to the hand with "tenaces" (queens, and kings, and spot cards).
Notice my king-doubleton of diamonds and strong spot cards in clubs. I was happy for the opening lead to come up to my hand. My alternative to 1NT was 2C, a pusillanimous call if I ever saw one. Who really cares about that club suit with this balanced hand?
West led a diamond. I won the 10 in dummy and ran the 9 of hearts. West won the jack and shifted to the 10 of spades. I covered with the jack and East won the queen. He returned the queen of clubs. I won the ace. Then I cashed the king of diamonds, led a spade to the ace and cashed the ace of diamonds, throwing a club. Then I called for a heart and put in the queen.
On the ace of hearts, however, the king did not come down. If it had, I'd have proudly displayed this hand to you as a fine example of smart, aggressive, game bidding. No, after West showed out in hearts, I folded my cards and conceded down 2.
Meanwhile, at the other table the player in my seat rebid 2C over 1S. His partner, with the North cards, bid 2NT, and South passed this. Two notrump made 8 tricks after a diamond lead from East.
My teammate, as West, won the jack of hearts at trick two and returned another diamond. He didn't know that East had led from three of them.
Now declarer had the time to establish another heart trick by winning with the king of diamonds and playing ace and queen of hearts. But his goal was only 8 tricks and he made it.
I deliberately used this hand, my friends, to illustrate two things.
One: a bridge tip is only a tip; it doesn't always work.
Two: when you get unlucky, you have to take the blow on the chin and keep plugging away.
Don't suddenly say, "Hey, this idea is no good, I should have rebid 2C and stopped on a dime in 2NT."
Most of the time reaching 3NT from the right side of the table is the winner. So keep a philosophical outlook and keep rebidding notrump when it looks right. You'll come out ahead in the long-run.
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A J 7 4 2
9 5 
A J 10
7 6 3
East