You reach the contract of 6♣ with no opposition bidding. West leads the ♠7. It is up to you to make the contract.

You play a small spade from dummy’s hand, East plays the ♠10 and you win the first trick with the ♠A.

With a 9-card suit of clubs, trump suit should offer no problems (unless there is a 3-1 or 4-0 split), but the other suits have each a problem of its own.

You have the ♦A, but miss the KQ. As you have a doubleton in hand, finding a way to discard one of the diamonds is high on your priority list. Spades offer the only possibility you have to discard.

You still have the ♠K and ♠J, but miss the ♠Q and the opening lead of spades by West does nothing to encourage you that spades might be distributed favorably.

You have the ♥AJxx and as there are no hearts on the table, you have the possibility to ruff three hearts tricks. That`s where you start by leading a small heart and ruffing in dummy (trick 2). Next you lead a small club and win this trick with the ♣J in hand (trick 3). Then you lead a small heart again, ruff in dummy (trick 4) and lead the ♣Q from dummy’s hand. East covers with the ♣K and you take this trick with the ♣A in hand, while West plays the ♣10 (trick 5).

Now that trumps have been taken care of, you must find a way to get tricks with both ♠K and ♠J to discard one of the diamonds. You lead the ♠9 and as West discards the ♥10, you duck and let East win this trick with the ♠Q (thus trick 6 belongs to opponents).

East leads the ♠8 back; you win this trick with the dummy’s ♠J (trick 7), lead the ♠K from dummy and discard the ♦3 (trick 8). You take the next trick with the dummy’s ♦A (trick 9), lead diamonds from dummy again and ruff (trick 10). Then you take a trick with the ♥A (trick 11), lead the ♥J, ruff in dummy (trick 12); lead the ♦J and ruff in hand (trick 13).

The lead was favorable, as East played high from the third seat – the ♠10 – making it easier for you to set up dummy’s spades.

But 6♣ would have been makeable with other opening leads too. If West had lead hearts for instance, East’s king would have been lost to your ace (trick 1). If you had led the ♥J next, this would have forced out West’s queen, ruffed by dummy (trick 2).

After pulling the trumps (tricks 3 and 4), you could have led hearts and ruffed one more time (trick 5), won a trick with the ♠K (trick 6), led a small spade from dummy and finessed with 9 (trick 7). After that you could have won one more trick with spades by leading the ♠A (trick 8), taken a trick with the ♦A (trick 9) and surrendered one trick in diamonds to the opponents (trick 10).

After that you would have been able to cross ruff and win the last three tricks.

Analysis:

Par Contract Analysis:

The par contract on this deal is 6♣ by North.

Bridge Baron deal No : N3127-97167-01572-87612-96388-16594