Deal of the Week (Jan 25, 2008) Click here for Archives |
Problem: The Auction: West North East South 3♦ dbl pass 3♥ all pass You are South on this week's deal, declaring 3♥. West leads the ♦K, and leads a diamond to his partner's ace. The East player now plays a third diamond, giving you a ruff and discard. How will you proceed? (When you play trumps, you will find out that West has the singleton ♥Q) Solution: There is more than one successful approach on this deal; we present one solution that is quite elegant. The defense cashes two diamonds, and plays a third diamond; you discard a club from hand and ruff in dummy. When you cash the ♥A, West follows with the ♥Q. West has shown up with the KQJ of diamonds and the ♥Q, so he is unlikely to have either of the black suit kings.
Your next move is to establish the club suit. You should play the ♣Q from dummy, to ensure that you lose the lead to East, who cannot play spades safely. East wins the king and plays back a club which you win with the ♣A. You ruff a club with the ♥8, establishing the suit. The stage is now set for the big play. You cash the king and ten of hearts, and play the carefully preserved ♥3 to endplay East, who will be forced to play a spade away from his king. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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When this deal was played, tricks one through four were identical to the recommended play. At trick five, the declarer cashed the ♥J, but failed to underplay the three. He then played a low club from the table; East naturally went up with the king and played a club to dummy's queen. When the ♣A was played next, East could have defeated the contract by ruffing with the ♥9. When East ruffed with the ♥7, declarer recovered from his earlier lapse by overruffing with the ♥10, and exiting with the ♥8 to East's nine. East had to play a spade away from the king; apart from securing an extra spade trick, the endplay enabled declarer to reach dummy via the ♠Q, and cash the established clubs.
Bridge Baron deal No : N0776-42908-33307-90134-60462-26521 You can download this deal in PPL format, and view it with Bridge Baron here :Deal Of The Week |
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