From                  3rd May, 2006, Board 3                

                                          Difficulty           * *

                                          Dlr South           E-W Vul
 

♠ JT85 ♥ J9752 ♦ KQ2 ♣ Q	North    West           East             South	♠ AKQ63 ♥ A ♦ 974 ♣ JT64
South   West    North   East                   Pass     Pass    1♣        1♠                 Dbl       3♣       Pass     4♠                 Pass     Pass    Pass

Partner’s 3♣ bid was a so-called “Mixed Raise”, somewhere in between a 4-card preemptive raise and a 4-card limit raise.

South leads a trump.

This is not the lead you wanted to see, it seems unlikely that you’ll be allowed to ruff three Clubs on the board.  But perhaps North started with a singleton trump, and AK♣, in which case you will be able to get those 3 ruffs, after all.  So, you win the opening trump lead on the board, and play the Q♣, won by South.  Another trump comes back, North following.

So much for that idea.  Now, the bidding and the play mark North with the A♦, and the danger is that you will lose two Clubs and two Diamonds.  What’s your plan?

SOLUTION

This one is not so difficult … if we have to lose another Club, we might as well set up a winner in the process … so we simply run the J♣, pitching away a Diamond, and losing to North’s King.  This play sets up our T♣, and allows Dummy to take care of that second Diamond via a ruff.

	♠ 73 ♥ KT6 ♦ AJ8 ♣ K8753
♠ JT85 ♥ J9752 ♦ KQ2 ♣ Q	North    West           East            South	♠ AKQ63 ♥ A ♦ 974 ♣ JT64
	♠ 94 ♥ Q843 ♦ T653 ♣ A92

Does the defense do better with an opening Diamond lead?  North takes the King with the Ace, and continues with a Diamond to Dummy’s Queen.  Now, Declarer makes his contract by losing a Club, and cross-ruffing to 10 tricks.

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