Hand of the week

Hand of the week, week commencing, Sunday 26th May 2024

Plan your play in 4♥ after the ♣Q is led followed by a switch to the ♦K

If you would like to play this out click here

Dealer: West Vuln: All

♠	Q 4
♥	Q 6 2
♦	A 9 7 4
♣	K 7 6 4

♠	K 5
♥	3
♦	K Q 8 5
♣	Q J 9 8 5 2

	N
W		E
W		E
	S

♠	10 9 6 3
♥	A 7 5
♦	10 6 3 2
♣	A 3

♠	A J 8 7 2
♥	K J 10 9 8 4
♦	J
♣	10

W	N	E	S
1♣	Pass	1♠	2♥
Pass	3♥	Pass	4♥
End

When this hand was played against me in the Middlesex Championship Pairs this year I was a little surprised when declarer went down even though the hand BECAME "OPEN BOOK" (this means you know where everything is.

Once the club queen is led you know where the ace is. When you tackle the trump suit you know where the trump Ace is, again with East. West opened the bidding so West MUST HAVE all the remaining High cards and now you know how to play the Spade suit.

After winning the Diamond King now play a Heart to your queen which holds. Play a second Heart won by East (it is at this point that the hand becomes Open book and you know where everything is. East gets off lead with a trump, his last one.

Now get back to hand by ruffing a low club pleased to see the Ace fall. Now play a spade up to dummy's Queen. West wins immediately and gets off lead with the Diamond Queen which you can of course ruff - you can now claim with either more 3 spades and a trump or claim 2 spades a trump and a club (it seems you didn't need the Club ace falling doubleton after all)

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

if you would like to comment on this page or say you like it you may do so now :-

HTML Comment Box is loading comments...