Hand of the week commencing
Sunday 20th January 2008
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South
Dealer |
ª |
7
4 3 2
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N/S
Vulnerable |
© |
Q
9 7 5 2 |
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¨ |
K
J 9 3 |
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§ |
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N |
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ª |
A
J 6 5
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ª |
Q
10 9 8 |
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© |
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W
E |
© |
J
10 |
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¨ |
A
10 7 2 |
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¨ |
Q
5 4 |
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§ |
A
8 6 3 2 |
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§ |
J
10 5 4 |
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S |
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ª |
K |
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Lead
ªA |
© |
A
K 8 6 4 3 |
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¨ |
8
6 |
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§ |
K
Q 9 7 |
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W |
N |
E |
S |
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1© |
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DBL |
4© |
NO |
NO |
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DBL |
NO |
4ª |
NO |
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NO |
5© |
NO |
NO |
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NO |
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West leads Ace and another spade plan your play.
You have been pushed a level higher than you wanted to be so can you
still bring home 11 tricks ? An initial count shows that you only have 6 winners
all from the trump suit. Therefore you are going to have to carefully find five
more or more importantly lose no more than 2.
The bidding shows that West must have all the Aces otherwise he does not
have his initial double. This means you can play the Club king and let it run if
he does not cover. If he does you can trump in the dummy and set up 1 Club
trick. 2 More clubs ruffed in dummy brings the total to 10. Now it’s a matter
of making 1 Diamond trick from 86 opposite KJ93. Sometimes this might be a guess
and you might play Low towards the Jack and play West for the missing Queen or
you might play low towards dummy and play the king playing West for missing Ace.
Here it should not be a guess. Having already worked out that west is likely to
have the missing Diamond Ace when you play your 8 and West plays low you must
not be tempted to try dummy’s Jack but must shoot up with the King for the
11th trick.
You have won 6 natural
trumps in hand, 1 Club in hand, 3 Club ruffs in dummy and 1 Diamond.