Hand of the week

Lead ♦8

Dealer: South

Vuln: None

♠	A K 8 4 2
♥	A
♦	J 6 5 3
♣	8 7 3

♠	J 10 7 3
♥	K J 8 6 3
♦	8 7
♣	9 5

	N
W		E
W		E
	S

♠	-
♥	10 9 2
♦	A Q 10 9 4
♣	Q J 10 6 2

♠	Q 9 6 5
♥	Q 7 5 4
♦	K 2
♣	A K 4

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

After North transfers into Spades South breaks the transfer and bids 3♠ to show maximum hand and a fit and North is now only too pleased to bid 4♠.

East wins the first trick and plays back a second Diamond.

If the trumps break kindly, no worse than 3:1 you will make 5 trumps, 1 Heart 1 Diamond and 2 Clubs. However this is only 9 tricks. Where will the 10th come from? There doesn't seem to be any further tricks to generate.

Back to the drawing board!!

Perhaps the answer is in a dummy reversal and trumping Hearts twice in dummy and then the dummy hand becoming the dominant trumping hand.

With entries somewhat in short demand in hand, without much ado play a Heart to the Ace and then return to hand via top club ready to trump your first Heart. Now cash a top Spade in dummy to receive the bad trump break news. Now return to hand via second top club and trump a second Heart pleased to see everybody still following suit.

Now play the Diamond Jack and discard the Club. East now plays another Diamond and this time you can trump with the ♠9.

East overtrumps with the ♠10 and exits with a trump.

Because of your clever planning you now have a top trump in each hand and can cross ruff the last two tricks.

You made 2 Clubs, 1 Diamond, 1Heart, 2 Heart ruffs, 2 trumps, and 2 cross ruffs at the end.