Problem:
The Auction:
West North East South
1♠ 3♣ pass
3♥
pass 4♥ all pass
West leads the ♦Q, you win in hand and lead the ♣10. West considers his play for a while, and eventually discards a spade(!), East wins the ♣A and returns a club. You discard a spade, West ruffs with the ♥5 and plays back a diamond. Plan the play to score ten tricks from this point.
Solution:
West has shown up with the queen and jack of diamonds, he should hold the king and jack of spades for his opening 1♠ bid, and is certain to hold the queen and jack of hearts to add up to 10 points, let alone 12 or 13! There are a couple of elegant lines of play both of which result in success:
Line 1:
Finesse the diamond return with dummy's ♦9, play the ♠Q to the ace and ruff a spade, East following with the ♠4 and the ♠10. Cash the ♦K to discard a spade from hand, play dummy's last diamond; East discards a club and you ruff with the ♥2. Ruff your last spade with dummy's ♥10 as East discards another club. Here is the four-card end position:
| ♠ - | |
| ♥ - | |
| ♦ - | |
| ♣ KQJ9 | |
| ♠ K |
 |
♠ - |
| ♥ QJ8 |
♥ 43 |
| ♦ - |
♦ - |
| ♣ - |
♣ 86 |
| ♠ - |
| ♥ AK76 |
| ♦ - |
| ♣ - |
Play a club and ruff with the ♥6. West can overruff with the ♥8, but you win the last three tricks.
Line 2
Finesse the diamond return with dummy's ♦9, and cash the ♣K discarding a spade from hand. West can ruff with the ♥8 and return the ♥Q, but you are now in control. You win the ♥A, cash the ♠A and ruff a spade, cash the ♦K to discard your last spade, ruff dummy's last diamond in hand (overruffing East's ♥4 with the ♥6 if required), cash the ♥K to draw the defenders' last trump and claim.
|
| ♠ Q | |
| ♥ 109 | |
| ♦ K1094 | |
| ♣ KQJ972 | |
| ♠ KJ975 |
|
♠ 104 |
| ♥ QJ85 |
♥ 43 |
| ♦ QJ87 |
♦ 652 |
| ♣ - |
♣ A86543 |
| ♠ A8632 |
| ♥ AK762 |
| ♦ A3 |
| ♣ 10 |
|
The lines of play suggested above require the ♥8 to be with West. If East holds the card, the contract cannot be made even after this friendly defense - you can try it for yourself by playing the deal using Bridge Baron.
Analysis:
Bridge Baron's double dummy analysis points out that the defense needs to play a heart either on opening lead, or when they get on lead next, in order to defeat the contract. West can ruff the ♣10 and lead the ♥Q or East can win the ♣A and return a heart instead making the insipid club return.
Par Contract Analysis:
The par contract on this deal is 5♣ by North-South, which turns out to make in spite of the 6-0 trump break!
Bridge Baron deal No : N2290-27712-33963-17911-31519-99616
You can download this deal in PPL format, and view it with Bridge Baron here :
Deal Of The Week
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