Hand of the week commencing
Sunday 2nd September 2007
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ª |
K
Q 10
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Dealer
North |
© |
8
7 3 |
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Love
All |
¨ |
A
Q 10 3 |
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§ |
J
10 7 |
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N |
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ª |
J
2
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ª |
3 |
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© |
A
10 9 5 |
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W
E |
© |
K
J 6 4 |
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¨ |
K
9 2 |
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¨ |
J
8 4 |
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§ |
K
6 4 3 |
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§ |
A
9 8 5 2 |
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S |
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Lead
©10 |
ª |
A
9 8 7 6 5 4 |
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© |
Q
2 |
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¨ |
7
6 5 |
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§ |
Q |
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W |
N |
E |
S |
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1¨ |
NO |
1ª |
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1NT* |
NO |
3ª
* only 13/14 point
playing strong NT |
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NO |
4ª |
NO |
NO |
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Your
partner leads the ©10
plan your defence.
When
this hand was played against me, East took the view that partner would not lead
away from an Ace (after all you never lead away from aces against suit contracts
do you ?) so at trick one he worked out that declarer must have both the Ace and
the queen and felt there was no need to play the king at trick one and followed
suit low. Now declarer had no problem in wrapping up 10 tricks losing just one
trick in each suit outside the trump suit.
However
clear East’s mind was, there was little point in playing low and he should
have followed that well known maxim that “third
hand plays high”. Now we have no problem in coming to 4 defensive tricks and
defeating the contract. Maybe next time East will reason that maybe West was
leading through dummy’s known strength. Next time you are sitting East and for
example you have only the Queen (here you had the king) play it and congratulate
partner for underleading “the occasional Ace.”