Bridge Deal of the Week (Sep 22 2006)

Problem:

The Auction:
West   North   East   South
                       1♥     3♣
pass     pass     dbl     all pass

Playing in a pair event with neither side vulnerable, East opens 1♥. Your 3♣ preempt is questionable as your clubs are mediocre and your hand contains soft values. When East reopens with a double, and West passes for penalties, the situation doesn't look too promising. West leads the ♥2. East cashes the King and Ace of hearts, cashes the ♠A, and exits with a low spade, you win the trick with dummy's Queen. You now lead a club off dummy, East hops up with the Ace, and plays yet another spade, you win perforce with the King as West follows.

Since the scoring is matchpoints, if you take 7 tricks, -300 will be a bottom score, unless the opponents can make 4♥ and a few people reach it, but even then it will still score badly. If you take 8 tricks, -100 is bound to be a good score, as the opponents have at least a heart partial their way. Can you think of a way to take 8 tricks?

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Bridge Baron deal No: 09655378240138551766997245132

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Deal Of The Week