Hand of the week

Hand of the week, week commencing, Sunday 25th July 2021

Plan your play of 6♥ on lead of ♦A and switch to ♠9

Dealer: East Vuln: None

<span style="color: rgb(0, 153, 51);">23 </span></a><br/><br/>

Dealer: East Vuln: None

♠	A K 7 6 3
♥	K 10 6
♦	J
♣	A Q 6 2

♠	9 5
♥	8 4 3
♦	A K 7 6 3
♣	J 8 7

	N
W		E
W		E
	S

♠	J 10 8 4 2
♥	Q 9
♦	10 9 8 4
♣	10 3

♠	Q
♥	A J 7 5 2
♦	Q 5 2
♣	K 9 5 4

W	N	E	S
		Pass	1♥
Pass	1♠	Pass	1NT
Pass	3♣	Pass	3NT
Pass	6♥	End

Everything seems to rest on who has the trump queen. The problem is you have a two way finesse. Since you have nothing else to guide you why not assume the defenders' points to be split fairly evenly. The lead has suggested that West has both the Ace and King of Diamonds so with this in mind now the Trump Queen is more likely to be possessed by East rather than West. With this in mind play the Trump King ready to finesse East for the missing Queen. You now get lucky and the Queen falls doubleton.

With the finesse being successful declarer now claimed 3 Spades, 5 trumps and 4 clubs (they broke 3:2)

When this hand was played against me the declarer didn't think it through and took an immediate finesse through West going one off. He didn't even try and cash a top honour first just in case there was a singleton Queen in either hand.

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 )