From                   7th June, 2006, Board 1

                                          Difficulty            * * 

                                          Dlr North           None Vul

East leads the 2♣, won on the board with the Queen.  Now, you can count 9 top tricks (barring a really bad Heart break) and just two losers.  You can certainly organize a Diamond ruff on the board for 10 tricks.  But this is matchpoints, where do you find that all-important 11^th trick?

SOLUTION

Nothing can stop the enemy from taking their 2 Diamond tricks, sooner or later.  And a ruff in Diamonds is also where we’ll get our 10^th trick.  We cannot afford to draw trump right away, if they are 3-1 we may find ourselves unable to get that ruff on the board.  Correct play is to attack Diamonds at Trick 2, ensuring the ruff in Dummy.  And, while we are at it, we might as well try for an 11^th trick, too.  Lead a Diamond from Dummy at trick 2, planning to finesse the 9 if West plays low.  Now, if West is the one to hold T♦, we can establish a natural Diamond trick as well as our ruff.  This line of play brings home 11 tricks.

That’s fine, but suppose that, at trick 2, when we lead to the Diamond 9, it loses to the Ten.  They send back a trump.  What now?  Clearly the defense is not about to let us ruff two Diamonds on the board if they can help it.  We win the trump return and lose another Diamond.  Another trump comes back, and the suit breaks 2-2.  OK, we have our 10^th trick with the Diamond ruff on the board, and have a free shot at the 11^th trick via the Spade finesse.  But we must take the Spade finesse immediately (in case it loses), while we still have that entry to the board (via the Diamond ruff).
 

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