| Dlr: South |
♠ 8 3 |
|
| Vul: Both |
♥ 3 2 |
|
|
♦ 8 7 6 5 3 |
|
|
♣ A K 7 4 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
♠ A K J 10 9 4 |
|
|
♥ Q 6 4 |
|
|
♦ A K |
|
|
♣ 8 6 |
|
| West |
North |
East |
South |
|
|
|
1♠ |
| Pass |
1NT |
Pass |
3♠ |
| Pass |
4♠ |
All Pass |
|
West leads the ♦Q against your spade game. What is your plan for taking 10 tricks?
Solution
Declarer counted nine fairly sure winners – five trumps and the four tops in the minors. A 10th could come if East had started with the queen of trumps, but that was at best a 50% chance, even if one discounted the possibility of minor-suit ruffs. Declarer decided that a better approach was to try to ruff a heart in dummy.
Obviously, leading a heart from hand would succeed only if West was forced to win on both heart leads – an unlikely situation. If East could gain the lead twice – much more likely – he could lead trumps twice without sacrificing his side’s trump trick in the event that West held the guarded queen.
Declarer had such a possibility in mind, so he crossed to dummy with a club to the king to lead a low heart. At the table, East rose with the ace and played a low trump. Declarer took this with the ace, crossed to dummy with another club to the ace to lead a second heart. This would have been a winning play if East had had both the ♥A and ♥K along with two low trumps. Instead, West took declarer’s ♥Q with the king and could not profitably continue with a trump. Out of clubs, West led another diamond. With no diamond ruff available to the defense, declarer was able to win with his ♦K and ruff his remaining heart with dummy’s ♠8. After ruffing a diamond back to hand with a middle trump, declarer cashed the ♠K and conceded a trick West’s queen of trumps. Making four.
Notice that declarer’s approach would have succeeded any time there was no defensive ruff and trumps were 3-2. Had trumps been 4-1 with West, West could have continued with a second trump without cost. The full deal:
| Dlr: South |
♠ 8 3 |
|
| Vul: Both |
♥ 3 2 |
|
|
♦ 8 7 6 5 3 |
|
|
♣ A K 7 4 |
|
| ♠ Q 7 5 |
|
♠ 6 2 |
| ♥ K 8 7 5 |
|
♥ A J 10 9 |
| ♦ Q J 10 2 |
|
♦ 9 4 |
| ♣ Q 10 |
|
♣ J 9 5 3 2 |
|
♠ A K J 10 9 4 |
|
|
♥ Q 6 4 |
|
|
♦ A K |
|
|
♣ 8 6 |
|
