Hand of the week commencing
Sunday 27th May 2007
West
leads §5
plan your play
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ª |
K
10 5 2
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© |
K
5 2 |
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¨ |
A
J 4 3 |
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§ |
A
4 |
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N |
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ª |
Q
9 7
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ª |
8 |
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© |
A
Q J 9 6 |
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W
E |
© |
8
3 |
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¨ |
K
7 5 |
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¨ |
10
9 8 |
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§ |
5
2 |
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§ |
K
Q 10 9 8 7 3 |
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S |
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ª |
A
J 6 4 3 |
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© |
10
7 4 |
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¨ |
Q
6 2 |
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§ |
J
8 |
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W |
N |
E |
S |
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1NT |
3§* |
3ª
*NB 3§
is pre-emptive and one suited here |
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NO |
4ª |
NO |
NO |
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NO |
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When
this hand was played against me, my eminent opponent left all his options open,
hoping for either an endplay or for suits to be breaking favorably.
After winning the first
trick he drew the inference that East, who had preempted, had very little
outside clubs and that he was probably short in Spades. So at trick two he
played a trump to his own ace and
successfully finessed dummy’s 10 at trick three. He then drew the last trump
before exiting with a club knowing that East would lead around to all dummy’s
red suit holdings. (NB A Club continuation would give a ruff and discard !!) So
East got off lead with the ¨10.
Declarer now won with dummy’s Jack . He now played ¨A
hoping that maybe the king would fall doubleton. It was not to be, so he played
another Diamond. Since the Diamonds now broke 33 the losing Heart was going away
on the winning Diamond in hand. Now it was a matter of the Hearts. West got off
lead with ace and Queen of Hearts and the hand was all over. Declarer’s losing
Heart was dispatched on the established Diamond and 10 tricks were notched up
for 7.7 very worthwhile IMPS. It seems the only lead to break this contract is
the ©Q
but this is almost as likely as
winning the lottery jackpot!!