Answer to Hand of the week commencing Sunday 8th February 2009      

 

 

North Dealer

ª

 9 8 6 5 4

 

 

 

Neither Vulnerable

©

 A 10 9

 

 

 

 

¨

 K 10 8

 

 

 

 

§

 8 3

 

 

 

 

 

N

 

 

ª

 A Q 3

 

 

ª

 K J 10

©

 6 5

 

W                          E

©

 7 3 2

¨

 9 5 3 2

 

 

¨

 Q J 6

§

 K J 10 6

 

 

§

 9 7 5 4

 

 

 

S

 

 

 

 

ª

 7 2

 

 

 

Lead ©6

©

 K Q J 8 4

 

 

 

 

¨

 A 7 4

 

 

 

 

§

 A Q 2

 

 

                           

W

N

E

S

 

 

 

1©

NO

1ª

NO

1NT

NO

2©

NO

NO

NO

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Playing MP Pairs what is best way to make 10 tricks  after a trump lead?

 

Initially you have 8 winners- 5 Hearts 2 Diamonds and the Ace of Clubs.  On the loser front you have 1 Club, 1 Diamond and 2 Spades.

Your trick tally will increase by one if you take the club finesse, assuming it is successful. You could ruff a club in dummy before clearing dummy’s trumps. You could set up Dummy’s Spades.

With the latter two options you will have to delay drawing trumps since you will either need one for ruffing clubs or need them as entries to the dummy. Since the opponents have already led trumps they will probably play more trumps at you when they get in.

 If the Spades can be set up and they break 33 then not only will you get a club away you can also get the Diamond loser away, and still have the finesse option available.

With this in mind, you win the first trick in dummy and immediately play a Spade which West will win. Assuming he plays another trump, you win in dummy and play another Spade off the table which is again won by West who gets off lead with a Diamond. You can now win it on the table and ruff out a final Spade high. With the spades breaking 33 you can now enter dummy with last trump and chuck a Diamond and a club on the established Spades. You can now take the club finesse for 11 tricks.

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