On this hand from a recent Teams game I needed a good score to get back into the game so when partner gave me delayed support for Diamonds I punted the Small Slam. Could I now bring home 12 tricks after the §9 lead ?

There is the Heart finesse that I could take. I could ruff out all the Spades but then I would give them a trump promotion as I would not be able to draw trumps. I could set the Spades up. I could do a spade finesse.- all these things went through my mind and in the end I decided to take the Spade finesse hoping that it would work or that the Spade Ten might come down in three rounds.

With this in mind, I took an immediate Spade finesse at trick Two which lost. East continued Clubs.

I now put all my eggs in the Spade basket  (hoping the Ten would fall). I drew trumps ending in dummy and played off the Spades delighted to see the Ten fall under the Jack.

I now made my contract by way of  4 trumps, 4 Spades, 2 Clubs 1 Heart and 1 Club ruffed in dummy.

(NB If the Spades had not behaved I would be able to fall back on the Heart finesse). If I take the Heart finesse and it fails, falling back on the Spades is not so palatable.

You can also watch the following movie to see how the hand pans out. To view this programme you will need  to download htttp://www.haroldschogger.com/bridgevu.setup

  alternatively watch the film www.haroldschogger.com/movies2.htm

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