From                 5th July, 2006, Board 11

                                          Difficulty           * * * *

                                          Dlr South          None Vul
 

Can you make 9 tricks, after North leads the J♦?  To start with, you play the King, but, alas, it is taken by the Ace, and Diamonds are continued.  You duck this trick, and are forced to win the third round of the suit.  Despite a combined 27 HCPs and a couple of 5-card suits, this contract is in severe jeopardy.  You need to develop one of those black suits, and logic says that you should go after Clubs, the suit with the better (but far from great!) intermediates.  Even if you can garner 4 Club tricks (5 is not possible), you will still need a second Heart trick to get up to 9.  Did we mention that this contract was in some jeopardy?

SOLUTION

There are two cases to consider:

(a) If Diamonds are 4-4, we will need to bring in the Clubs for just one loser and successfully finesse the Heart.

(b) If Diamonds are 5-3, it's both good news and bad news ... the bad news is that our inevitable Club loser must be lost to the safe hand (the hand with 3 Diamonds), otherwise they will get their 5 before we get our 9 ... the good news is that, if we can successfully achieve that, then we can survive a losing Heart finesse, if it turns out that it is North who has the long Diamonds.  Of course, if South has the 5 Diamonds, and also has the K♥, then we are sunk in a ditch. 

This is a complex deal, but surely the correct play, after winning that 3rd round of Diamonds in our hand, is to play the J♣, giving us the best chance to keep North off play.  Here is the complete deal.

Not only does this play give us the best chance to bring home the 3-3 Clubs without North getting in, it also gives us some additional chances when Clubs are 4-2.  On the actual deal, Diamonds are 4-4, so it's all about bringing in the Clubs, as it happens.  And, as luck would have it, leading the Jack is the percentage way to do that.  It succeeds whenever Clubs are 3-3, and it also allows us to pick up certain 4-2 Club breaks, such as the one in the actual deal. 

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