Hand of the week

Hand of the week, week commencing, Sunday 22nd August 2021

The ♣3 is led going to East's Ace who then plays back a second Club plan your play

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

Dealer: East Vuln: Love All

♠	Q 8 6 2
♥	9 8 3 2
♦	A J 2
♣	9 4

♠	J
♥	A J 10 7
♦	K 9 5
♣	J 10 7 3 2

	N
W		E
W		E
	S

♠	10 7 5 3
♥	Q 6 5
♦	Q 7 6
♣	A 6 5

♠	A K 9 4
♥	K 4
♦	10 8 4 3
♣	K Q 8

	7
10		8
	15

W	N	E	S
		Pass	1NT
Pass	2♣	Pass	2♠
End

When this hand was played my partner drew trumps and was then a one trick short by the end of play.

Let's now replay.

After the favourable club lead and club return you now have 2 Club winners, 3 Spade winners and 1 Diamond winner without doing any work so you only need to generate two more tricks. If the trumps break favourably you will get one more spade tricks and for your eighth trick you will need to ruff a Diamond in dummy before drawing all the trumps.

With all this in mind. Play a third Club and chuck a Diamond from dummy. Now play Ace and another Diamond so you will be able to trump a Diamond when regaining the lead. East wins and plays a Heart and the defnders cash two heart winners followed by the ♠J. You win this in hand so you can trump a diamond.

You now cash the ♠Q as West fails to follow suit. Although the spade suit broke unkindly youcan now finesse East and make the last two Spade tricks with your K9 sitting over East's remaining 107

You eventually made 2 Clubs, 1 Diamond, 1 Diamond ruffed and 4 trump tricks.

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 )