From                   Board 13, 24th May, 2006

                                          Difficulty            * * * *

                                          Dlr North           Both Vul

East leads the Club Two, won by West’s Ace.  West continues with the J♣, which you duck, then the Nine, which you win, pitching a Spade.  Now, you play the A♥, the Queen appearing from West … next, you finesse the T♥ successfully, West pitching a Spade.

Now you can count 9 top tricks, how do you try for an overtrick?

SOLUTION

We cannot be sure that East’s opening lead was 4^th best, especially considering that he started with 5 Hearts.  But, if he did, he can be end-played … we cash 4 Diamonds, ending on the board … East follows to two rounds, then pitches a Heart and a Spade.

We are now down to a 4-card end … East has Jx of Hearts, and two black cards … if he has one Spade and one Club, the route to 10 tricks is to cross to the A♠, and throw East in with a Club … East must now concede the last two tricks to Dummy’s Hearts.

Yes, it’s a risky line of play!  If it turns out, in the 4-card ending, that East has two Spades and no Clubs, we’ll be going down in a cold contract.  So, excellent analysis if you visualized the end-position, and admirable courage if you risked your contract for the exotic overtrick.
 

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