Hand of the week commencing
Sunday 9th December 2007
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North
Dealer |
ª |
Q
10 4 3 2
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Neither
Vulnerable |
© |
K
J |
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¨ |
Q
9 7 5 |
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§ |
J
3 |
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N |
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ª |
A
J 9
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ª |
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© |
10
8 6 2 |
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W
E |
© |
Q
9 7 |
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¨ |
8
4 2 |
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¨ |
K
10 6 3 |
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§ |
K
Q 4 |
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§ |
10
8 7 5 2 |
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S |
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Lead
©2 |
ª |
K
87 6 5 |
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© |
A
5 4 3 |
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¨ |
A
J |
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§ |
A
9 |
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W |
N |
E |
S |
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1ª |
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NO |
3ª |
NO |
4ª |
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NO |
NO |
NO |
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Playing
Match Points how do you maximize your chances to make 11 tricks on this hand ?
At the
start You have 4 winners – 2 Hearts and 2 Minor suit Aces.
You
have 4 potential losers, 1 Club, 1 Diamond and 2 Spades if the spades break
badly and East has AJ9.
You
have escaped a Club lead, so as soon as you get in, you can try the Diamond
finesse. If it loses then you will be able to chuck the club loser on dummy’s
winning Queen. If the finesse is successful you will then have to negotiate the
trumps to try and lose only the ace. If the trumps break 21 you will have no
problems. If the trumps break 30 with West holding AJ9 then you will have to
take out insurance and maintain dummy’s Q10 tenace in tact. Therefore you will
have to play low towards the King or play the King first.
Bearing
all this in mind, you try the Jack at trick one which is beaten by East’s
Queen. You win the Ace and immediately enter dummy via the Heart king. Now that
you are in dummy you take the Diamond finesse which wins. Now it’s a matter of
playing the trumps. You play King of trumps retaining dummy’s Q10 and when
West follows with the Ace and East discards its now a matter of finessing
East’s Jack when you regain the lead.
You
will make 2 Natural trumps, 2 Hearts, 2 Diamonds, 1 Club and 4 cross ruffs in
the red suits, merely conceding the trump Ace and a club honour.