Great Game Products - Bridge Deal of the Week solution (Apr 14, 2006)

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Problem:
You are playing a 7 board swiss match, and you open 1H with the South hand. West doubles, and partner redoubles. RHO passes and so do you. LHO bids 2C, and partner cue-bids 3C, which shows a game forcing hand. You bid a meek 3H, wishing that you hadn't opened this hand in the first place. Partner bids 4H after some thought. East doubles, which doesn't surprise you given your hand. Partner however looks surprised, and ventures a redouble! He has a lot of confidence in your declarer play!

West leads the Two of Diamonds. It is unusual for defenders to underlead an Ace in a suit contract. However, since West made a takeout double, it is a good idea try the King anyway; it won't hurt you much if the King loses to the Ace and if the King wins, you'll have one loser less. Hence, you play the King, which loses to the Ace. East shifts to the Eight of Clubs. Do you like your chances?

Solution:

	♠ K854
	♥ AQ5
	♦ K9764
	♣Q
♠ QJ32		♠ 1096
♥ -		♥ J10976
♦ Q1082		♦ AJ5
♣ KJ1092		♣ 84
	♠ A7
	♥ K8432
	♦ 3
	♣ A7653

You can assume that East has 5 hearts for his double. West is likely to have 5 clubs for his 2C bid, leaving East with 2 clubs. West should have 4 spades for his takeout double, which means East has 3. Putting all this information together, East's distribution is 3-5-3-2. Since you now know East's distribution, you should try to score the little trumps in your hand by ruffing dummy's losers. Here is one possible line of play that succeeds:

Trick 1: Diamond to the King, won by East's Ace
Trick 2: Club return, won by the Ace
Trick 3: Cash Ace of Spades
Trick 4: Play a spade to the King
Trick 5: Ruff a spade in hand
Trick 6: Ruff a club in dummy
Trick 7: Ruff a diamond in hand
Trick 8: Play a heart to the Ace
Trick 9: Ruff a diamond in hand
Trick 10: Ruff a club with the Queen of Hearts
Trick 11: Ruff a diamond or spade with the King of Hearts
You concede the last two tricks.

You can also land the contract with a trump endplay against East, thanks to the 8 of Hearts in your hand. The first few tricks are the same:

You now ruff a club with dummy's Queen of Hearts, East discarding his diamond. At this stage, East's hand contains only trumps.

The position is:

	♠ 8
	♥ A
	♦ 976
	♣-
		♠ -
		♥ J10976
		♦ -
		♣ -
	♠ -
	♥ K84
	♦ -
	♣ 76

You now play a spade or diamond from dummy; if East ruffs low, you ruff with the 8, and the Ace and King of Hearts will give you 10 tricks. If East ruffs with the J, 10 or 9, You overruff with the King. Now ruff another club with the Ace of Hearts, east has to underruff with the 6 or 7 of hearts. You lead a spade or a diamond from dummy; Again, if East ruffs low, you can overruff with the 8. If East ruffs high, you discard your last club; East can cash his other high trump, but your 8 of Hearts will score the last trick.

Analysis:
When this hand was played at the table, one declarer went down in 4H, while the other declarer executed the trump endplay line to land his contract. Our intention was to base the Deal Of The Week on the trump endplay line. The more elegant line of ruffing dummy's losers in hand was pointed out by Bridge Baron's double dummy analysis!
Par Contract Analysis:
According to Bridge Baron's par contract analysis, 4H by south is the par contract. If the contract is played by North, a heart lead by East would scuttle the contract; when declarer gives up a diamond, East can win the trick to play another heart, leaving declarer with only 9 tricks.

Bridge Baron deal No : 34887782103510189679636739124

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

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