From                 19th July, 2006, Board 20

                                          Difficulty           * * * *

                                          Dlr West           Both Vul

 

♠ Q852 ♥ T76 ♦ J9652 ♣ A
Dummy West             East           South	West    North  East    South Pass    Pass    Pass   2NT Pass    3♣       Pass   3♥ Pass    3NT    All Pass
♠ A6 ♥ AQ53 ♦ AK3 ♣ KJT4

West leads the Club Six, East playing the Two.

 

This is a most inconvenient lead, it knocks out Dummy’s entry before the Diamonds are established.  Now, it looks as if you must rely on the Q♦ coming down doubleton, but, on the play of the top Diamonds both players follow with low cards.  You can be sure that the opponents will not allow you to get to board with the the Q♠, but, nonetheless it's worth exiting a Diamond anyway.  The mere threat of the Diamond winners on the board may restrict the opponents' exit options later in the hand.  So, you play another round of Diamonds, which is won by East, West pitching a Spade.  He returns the Club Three, your Jack loses to the Queen, and another Club comes back.

 

What next?

 

SOLUTION

Things don't look any less grim, yet.  We still have just 7 winners, and our only hope for more is to let the opponents break open the majors.  It looks as if, fortuitously, the Clubs are 4-4, and the first step must be to extract those exit cards by cashing the 4th round of Clubs.  Which three cards have we pitched from Dummy on the Clubs?  We can spare only one Spade, and must also pitch a Diamond winner and a Heart.

The best chance is to lead a low Heart towards the Ten ... our hope is that Hearts are 3-3, and the the player with the Jack also has the K♠ ... and, if it happens to be East with the J♥, then we'll also need him to have the K♥.  So we lead a low Heart towards the Dummy, hoping that the suit divides and the honors are favorably placed.  This is the complete deal:

	♠ Q852 ♥ T76 ♦ J9652 ♣ A
♠ K73 ♥ KJ84 ♦ 84 ♣ Q876	Dummy West             East           South	♠ JT94 ♥ 92 ♦ QT7 ♣ 9532
	♠ A6 ♥ AQ53 ♦ AK3 ♣ KJT4

As it happens, Hearts are 4-2, but the contract still makes!  West must play the J♥, and his only hope now is to exit the K♥, East following with the 9.  Declarer wins this, and by now can be sure that the K♠ is with West (otherwise, he would have safely exited a Spade).  Now it matter not whether West started 2, 3, or 4 Hearts ... Declarer plays A♠ and out a Spade.  If West started with two Hearts, then Dummy gets the last 2 tricks ... if West started with 3 Hearts, he can choose whether he concedes the last 2 tricks to Dummy or Declarer ... and if West started with 4 Hearts, he is left with 84, to lead into Declarer Q5.

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