Hand of the week

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Dealer: South Vuln: All

♠	A 6
♥	A 9
♦	K Q 10 6 4
♣	A J 4 2

♠	8 5 3
♥	10 7 4 2
♦	9 8 7 5
♣	10 6

	N
W		E
W		E
	S

♠	10 4
♥	K J 8 6 5 3
♦	J 3
♣	K 9 5

♠	K Q J 9 7 2
♥	Q
♦	A 2
♣	Q 8 7 3

W	N	E	S
			1♠
Pass	2♦	Pass	2♠
Pass	6♠	End

It seems that without doing any work at all you have 11 winners after the lead and maybe if the Club finesse is successful and you hope a doubleton Club King is onside or pin a doubleton 109 you can make two more.

However why put all your eggs in the Club finessing basket when there is this wonderful second suit beckoning? If something good happens in Diamonds then you will not need to worry about the club finesse or which doubleton to play for. Therefore you will need to draw trumps first and test the Diamonds next before ever touching those clubs. So after winning the first trick in hand with the Jack after East plays the ♠10, play a second trump to the remaining Ace in dummy. Now play Ace and another Heart ruffing the second Heart high (just in case West has none but this is highly unlikely). Now draw the last trump.

Now lets see what happens when we now play the Diamond suit. When you can Ace and a top Diamond the suit breaks badly, 4:2 BUT the Jack is doubleton and now you make all the remaining Diamonds.

Without the club problem finesse you now easily make 13 tricks from 5 Trumps, 1 Heart 1Heart ruffed high, 5 Diamonds and 1 Club for a very good match points score.

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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