Answer to

Hand of the week commencing Sunday 24th June 2007  

  West leads ª10 plan your 3NT contract

 

 

Dealer South

ª

K J

 

 

 

Both Vul

©

K 10 4

 

 

 

 

¨

Q J 10 4

 

 

 

 

§

7 6 5 4

 

 

 

 

 

N

 

 

ª

Q 10 9 6 5

 

 

ª

8 7 4 3

©

 A 7

 

W                          E

©

9 8 6 3 2

¨

 9 8 6 3

 

 

¨

A

§

10 2

 

 

§

K 9 8

 

 

 

S

 

 

 

 

ª

 A 2

 

 

 

 

©

Q J 5

 

 

 

 

¨

K 7 5 2

 

 

 

 

§

A Q J 3

 

 

W

N

E

S

 

 

 

 

1§

 

NO

3§

NO

3NT

 

NO

NO

NO

 

 

 

Options, options, options, where do we go from here ?

Initially we have just 3 winners – 2 Spades and a club.

Tricks can come from clubs, Diamonds and Hearts. However as soon as the opponents get in they will play another Spade and establish 3 tricks in that suit for the defence. We need 6 more. Therefore which suit(s) will give us these extra tricks before the defence can get their  five.  If we go after the both the red suits we will have to give up the lead twice – no good. If we go after the clubs and the King is onside we will not lose a trick in this suit and the suit will realize three further tricks. This means we will only need 3 more. The Hearts can only ever produce 2 more but the Diamonds can produce 3 more. Any further problems – we will need entries to dummy to take the  club finesse.

Bearing all this in mind, win first trick in dummy and take an immediate club finesse, which wins. Now play a Diamond to knock out the Ace. The defence will knock out our remaining Spade control and now its just a matter of entering dummy to take a further club finesse. Now we will win 2 Spades, 3 Diamonds and 4 Clubs. 

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