Answer to Hand of the week commencing Sunday 14th December  2008    

West leads HJ plan your play.

This hand comes from “The Golden Rules for Rubber Bridge Players” by Julian Pottage (published by Cassell in the mas ter Bridge series).

This hand is devoted to combining your odds so that if one line of play will not work then you can still fall back onto another option.

Initially you have 11 winners -2 Spade tricks, 3 Hearts, 4 Diamonds, and 2 clubs.

You can take the club finesse for your 12^th trick or develop an extra trick in Spades if the suit breaks 33.

If you take the Club finesse and it loses it will be too late to then fall back on the Spade. If you play Spades off the top and the suit breaks 42 then again it will be too late to fall back onto the club finesse as they will surely cash a winning Spade. Therefore to combine both choices you will need to leave both options open for as long as possible. The way you achieve this is to duck a round of Spades, keeping the Ace King in tact. If the Spades fail to break, the opposition will be unable to cash a winning Spade and you can then  fall back onto the club finesse.

After winning the first trick, immediately play a low Spade from each hand. The defence will persevere with another Heart, which you win. You now cash the two high Spades and now that they are breaking you are home and dry. Your 12^th trick has come from the established 13^th spade.

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