Problem: You reach a contract of 6♠.West leads the Queen of Diamonds to his partner's Ace, and you win the Diamond return with the King. How do you plan the play?
Solution: After winning the King of Diamonds, you should play the Queen of Spades (or the Jack), with the intention of finessing. After the Queen of Spades holds, you lead the Jack of spades; both opponents follow to this trick with small trumps. Drawing trumps would be a mistake now. If clubs split 3-3, the hand is cold. If clubs split 4-2, and if the player holding the third trump (You know that it is East, since the missing trump is the King) also holds 4 clubs, you can try to ruff the losing club in dummy. Now cash the Ace and Queen of clubs, and lead a third club to the King. If clubs are 3-3, you're home. However, on this hand, clubs are not 3-3 and West discards a diamond on the third club, meaning your thoughtful play pays off! You ruff your club loser in dummy, and bring home the contract.
|
| ♠ QJ3 |
|
| ♥ 982 |
|
| ♦ 6532 |
|
| ♣ AQ2 |
|
| ♠ 54 |
 |
♠ K62 |
| ♥ 10765 |
♥ QJ43 |
| ♦ QJ1074 |
♦ A9 |
| ♣ 86 |
♣ J1095 |
|
♠ A10987 |
| ♥ AK |
|
♦ K8 |
| ♣ K743 |
|
Analysis:
After Winning the King of Diamonds, Bridge Baron played a club to the Ace. At this stage, the baron played a diamond from dummy, and ruffed in hand.. This play has a lot of advantages; if east mistakenly discards a club, the hand is over immediately. More importantly, if East has four trumps and four clubs, this play sets a stage for a trump coup.
Suppose this is the position after a diamond is played from dummy with east to play:
| ♠ QJ3 |
|
| ♥ 982 |
|
| ♦ 65 |
|
| ♣ AQ2 |
|
| ♠ 54 |
|
♠ K62 |
| ♥ 10765 |
♥ QJ43 |
| ♦ J107 |
♦ - |
| ♣ 86 |
♣ J1095 |
|
♠ A10987 |
| ♥ AK |
|
♦ - |
| ♣ K743 |
East cannot pitch a spade, or a club, and hence has to pitch a heart. You will ruff, and enter dummy again with the Club Queen. You will now play the Queen of Spades, followed by the Jack of Spades; if east covers either of these cards, you will adopt the play outlined above, i.e ruff the fourth club in dummy, cross to hand in hearts, draw trumps and claim. Therefore, east has to play low to both these tricks. Now, you will play a club to the King, Cash the Ace and King of Hearts, and ruff your last club in dummy. This will be the position, with the lead in dummy:
|
♠ - |
|
| ♥ 9 |
|
| ♦ 6 |
|
|
♣ - |
|
| ♠ - |
|
♠ K6 |
| ♥ 10 |
♥ - |
| ♦ J |
♦ - |
| ♣ - |
♣ - |
|
♠ A10 |
|
♥ - |
|
♦ - |
|
♣ - |
Now you can play any card from dummy, and cover East's card with a higher card and claim the slam. If the trumps had divided 4-1, the play of ruffing a diamond would have been essential.
Par Contract Analysis:
Bridge Baron deal No : 50716249132668808115364817565
You can download this deal in PPL format, and view it with Bridge Baron here :
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