| Dlr: South | ♠ A J 10 | |
| Vul: N-S | ♥ Q J 10 9 3 | |
| ♦ A K Q | ||
| ♣ 10 9 | ||
| ♠ 8 | ||
| ♥ A 6 | ||
| ♦ J 10 9 7 4 | ||
| ♣ A K Q 5 4 |
| West | North | East | South |
| 1♦ | |||
| 2♦(1) | Dbl | 3♠(2) | 4♣ |
| Pass | 4♠ | Pass | 5♣ |
| Pass | 6♦ | All Pass |
(1) At least 5-5 in the majors
(2) Weak
West starts with the ♠K against your slam. How do you plan to bring this contract home?
Solution
Declarer won with dummy’s ♠A and cashed the ♦A and ♦K, noting that West followed suit to both.
West’s overcall had promised at least 5-5 in the majors, so West had at most one club. Declarer saw that there was no point in playing the ♥A and another heart as that approach would succeed only if West had three trumps: Otherwise, West would play low on the second heart and let East ruff.
The issue facing declarer, therefore, was the identity of West’s third minor-suit card. One option was an immediate club finesse for the jack, but, declarer found a good way of minimizing the risk that West would win a finesse with the singleton ♣J. He left the last trump outstanding and led the ♠J from dummy, discarding a club on it. West won the ♠Q and could have returned:
- A spade: Declarer would have discarded a heart, drawn the remaining trump and finessed clubs.
- A heart: Declarer would have won in dummy, discarded another club and drawn the trump.
- A club: Declarer would have won, led a trump to dummy and discarded a heart on the spade.
- A trump: Declarer would won in dummy, discarded a heart, and taken the then-safe club finesse.
Only when West returned a spade would declarer have needed to riskily run the ♣10. Even then, East was a 5-1 favorite to hold the ♣J. The full deal:
| Dlr: South | ♠ A J 10 | |
| Vul: N-S | ♥ Q J 10 9 3 | |
| ♦ A K Q | ||
| ♣ 10 9 | ||
| ♠ K Q 6 5 2 | ♠ 9 7 4 3 | |
| ♥ K 8 5 4 2 | ♥ 7 | |
| ♦ 8 6 | ♦ 5 3 2 | |
| ♣ 8 | ♣ J 7 6 3 2 | |
| ♠ 8 | ||
| ♥ A 6 | ||
| ♦ J 10 9 7 4 | ||
| ♣ A K Q 5 4 |