Hand of the week

How do you make 4♠ on three top Heart leads?

If you would like to play this hand out then click here

Dealer: North Vuln: All

♠	K J 8 7 4
♥	10 6 5
♦	A J
♣	6 5 2

♠	6
♥	A K Q 9 8 4
♦	10 9
♣	A Q 7 3

	N
W		E
W		E
	S

♠	10 3 2
♥	J 3
♦	8 6 5 3 2
♣	10 9 4

♠	A Q 9 5
♥	7 2
♦	K Q 7 4
♣	K J 8

W	N	E	S
	Pass	Pass	1NT¹
Double²	2♥³	Pass	2♠⁴
3♥	4♠	End

1. Strong No Trump 15-17

2. Penalty in Theory 18+ but look at that Heart suit J

3. System still on and Transfer

4. complete transfer

This hand is really easy but I have seen a few people go off as they were so intent on playing a club when they should not have been doing so or forgetting to unblock the Diamonds early on.

Let's go back to the beginning. Initially, you have 5 spade winners (even if there is a 4:0 break) 4 Diamonds and now you are able to ruff the Heart loser in your hand, the short hand.

So without much ado draw two two rounds of trumps winning in dummy with the King and Jack (retaining the Trump Ace in hand as your entry to your diamonds). Now unblock the two top Diamonds in dummy, before drawing the last trump with your Spade ace which you retained as an entry. Now enjoy the last two diamonds throwing away two clubs from dummy. You can now concede a Club to the opposition after making 5 trumps, 4 Diamonds and 1 Heart ruff. Main thing here is to keep trump entry back to hand and unblock the Ace and Jack of Diamonds before drawing the last trump.

You can also play out the following hand to see how the hand pans out. (You need bridgvu.exe programme and it is available free from http://www.haroldschogger.com/movies.html )

alternatively watch the film of the hand being played out by going to www.haroldschogger.com/movies2.htm

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