Dealer: North

 

Vuln: None

 

My partner Ahdwaq played this hand to perfection after the ♣Queen was led.

He initially only had 7 winners i.e.3 top trumps, 3 Aces and a King.

He had 5 potential losers:- 1-2 trump losers if they broke badly, 2 Diamonds and 1 club.

He had to hope the trumps were breaking 4:3 which were the favourable odds.

He had to get those Diamonds working so he could eventually discard the club loser.

With all this in mind, he played Ace and another Diamond immediately at tricks two and three.

After winning the second, Diamond West now played the ♥Queen won by dummy's Ace.

In order to get back to hand, declarer now trumped a Heart in order to play three rounds of top trumps pleased to see the suit breaking favourably 4:3.

He now played his last Diamond won by West. who got off lead with the ♥Jack

Declarer now trumped.

He entered dummy with the carefully preserved Club King. He could now play the winning established Diamond and dump his club loser.

He would lose just one more trick, the Spade Jack.

He won 5 trumps, 2 Clubs 1 Heart 1 Diamond and 1 established diamond, losing just 1 spade, and 2 Diamonds.

(NB Had West played a second club after winning the Diamond then I am sure my partner would have remembered that West led the Queen promising the Jack and would have played low from dummy allowing the lead to come round to his 10).

( you can play these hands out using bridgevu.exe and it is available free from   http://www.haroldschogger.com/movies.html )  Click on the lin picture above