Contact usAbout usAffiliates
Deal of the Week (Aug 22, 2008) Click here for Archives
Problem:

The Auction:
West  North  East  South
1      pass    pass  1♠
pass    2NT    pass  3♠
pass    4♠      dbl    all pass

West leads the ♣A (Ace from Ace-King). Plan the play.

Solution:
The opening lead has reduced your trump holding to four tricks, so establishing a diamond trick is unlikely to work. Ruffing a heart in dummy is out of question as well, with West advertising a five-card suit. East's double, given his lack of points, makes it likely that he has length in spades. The winning play here is to play on dummy reversal lines. The plan should be to ruff all five clubs in hand. Here is the proposed line of play:

Trick 1 - Ruff the opening club lead
Trick 2 - Play a heart to the ace
Trick 3 - Ruff a club
Trick 4 - Play a heart to the king as East thankfully follows (if East ruffs this, you can no longer make the hand)
Trick 5 - Ruff a third club
Trick 6 - Play a diamond to the ace
Trick 7 - Ruff a fourth club (East follows; it would not matter if he had 3 clubs and 3 diamonds, and he discarded a diamond on this trick)
Trick 8 - Play a diamond to the king
Trick 9 - Play dummy's last club; East ruffs perforce, while you overruff.
Trick 10 - Exit with a diamond. East once again ruffs perforce, and is endplayed to concede a trick to dummy's ♠8!

 82
 AK
 AK85
 98764
 6 Deal  97543
 QJ1098  72
 Q107  J9
 AKQ2  J1053
 AKQJ10
 6543
 6432
 -

It should be noted that East's double was a poor one, as it alerted declarer to the winning line of play (otherwise, ruffing a heart with dummy's ♠8 is a possibility).

Analysis:
Bridge Baron's double dummy solver confirms that this is the only route to success. The double dummy solver also points out that the club lead is the only lead to give away the contract, as on any other lead declarer does not have the extra entry to ruff the fifth club.
Par Contract Analysis:
The par contract on this deal is 6 by North-South.

Bridge Baron deal No : N0965-20073-61303-58281-12754-23976

You can download this deal in PPL format, and view it with Bridge Baron here :
Deal Of The Week
(Please note : To avoid spammers and abusive language this board is moderated.)
Comments: