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Deal of the Week (Nov 02, 2007) Click here for Archives
Problem:
Your partnership reaches the excellent contract of 6♣ after an uncontested auction. West leads the ♣3, which is the only lead to test you, and East follows with the ♣9. What is your plan to come to twelve tricks?
Solution:
On any other lead other than a trump, you would have been able to ruff two spades in dummy, and discard another spade on the A, losing just one spade. The defense threatens to thwart this plan by opening a trump. If you play play a low spade at trick two, then the player with the second trump (East on this deal) would win the trick and play a second trump. You could still succeed if the J comes down in three (or fewer) rounds, but as that does not materialize on this deal, you would go down.

The key to this deal is to try to place the lead to the opponent who can't do much damage. You can do this in one of the following two ways:

Lead the ♠K at trick two
If the opponent with the ♠A does not have the second trump, he would not be able to play a second trump, and you would be able to ruff two spades in dummy.

Lead the ♠J at trick two.
If the opponent who has the ♠Q has only one trump, he would not be able to play a second trump if he wins the trick with the ♠Q. If he lets his partner win the trick with the ♠A in order to play a second trump, your ♠K will materialize as a trick, so you only need to ruff one spade in dummy.

It is pretty much a toss-up whether to lead the ♠K or the ♠J. Also, you can cash the king and queen of hearts before you exit with a spade honor. In fact, you need to cash the king and queen of hearts before you take the second spade ruff in dummy, so that you are able to cash the A when you are in dummy for the last time.

 7
 A1062
 Q8653
 642
 Q643 Deal  A1092
 J873  954
 K1097  AJ42
 3  109
 KJ95
 KQ
 -
 AKQJ875

Analysis:
The double dummy analysis confirms that leading the spade jack (optionally after cashing the king and queen of hearts) is required to succeed.

Bridge Baron's Line of Play
Bridge Baron found the winning line of play on this week's deal. After winning the opening lead in hand, Bridge Baron cashed the king and queen of hearts, and led the ♠J. Now no defense could stop Bridge Baron from making the contract.
Par Contract Analysis:
The par contract on this deal is 6♣ by North-South.

Bridge Baron deal No : N1260-99982-49474-41957-68694-68077

You can download this deal in PPL format, and view it with Bridge Baron here :
Deal Of The Week
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