| Dlr: North |
♠ Q 6 4 |
|
| Vul: E-W |
♥ 8 7 5 |
|
|
♦ A K Q |
|
|
♣ J 10 5 2 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
♠ A K J 7 3 |
|
|
♥ Q |
|
|
♦ J 10 9 8 6 |
|
|
♣ K 3 |
|
|
| West |
North |
East |
South |
|
1♣ |
Pass |
1♠ |
| 2♥ |
Dbl |
Pass |
4♠ |
| All Pass |
|
|
|
|
Your partner’s double of 2♥ showed three-card spade support, so you bid the normal game. West starts with the ♥A, continuing with the ♥K. What is your plan for making this contract?
Solution
It appeared West was attempting to weaken declarer’s trump holding. Declarer saw that if spades were 3-2, he would have 10 tricks: five each in spades and diamonds. In that case, after ruffing the second heart and drawing trumps, declarer would cash dummy’s diamonds and try for an overtrick by leading a club.
Alas, this was not to be. After ruffing the second heart and seeing that all followed to the ♠A,declarer played a low trump to dummy’s queen. The bad news came when East discarded a heart. The 4-1 trump break was a nuisance because he could not draw the rest of the trumps without losing control. (If he did so, he could do no better than cash dummy’s diamonds and lead a club. The defense would then take the ♣A and cash three heart tricks.
With that in mind, declarer abandoned trumps for the moment to cash dummy’s top two diamonds. Declarer was relieved to see that West had at least two diamonds.
Declarer now played a trump to his king and drew West’s remaining trump with the jack, discarding the ♦Q from dummy. Declarer had taken seven tricks and was then able to claim three diamond tricks to make his contract. The full deal:
| Dlr: West |
♠ Q 6 4 |
|
| Vul: E-W |
♥ 8 7 5 |
|
|
♦ A K Q |
|
|
♣ J 10 5 2 |
|
| ♠ 10 9 8 2 |
|
♠ 5 |
| ♥ A K J 3 2 |
|
♥ 10 9 6 4 |
| ♦ 4 3 |
|
♦ 7 5 2 |
| ♣ A Q |
|
♣ 9 8 7 6 4 |
|
♠ A K J 7 3 |
|
|
♥ Q |
|
|
♦ J 10 9 8 6 |
|
|
♣ K 3 |
|
