From                 9th August, 2006, Board 27

                                          Difficulty           * * *

                                          Dlr South          None Vul
  

♠ Q972 ♥ 3 ♦ AQ983 ♣ A95
Dummy    West            East             South	South   West   North   East 1♣       Pass   1♦        1♥ 1NT    2♥       3NT    Pass Pass    Pass
♠ J8 ♥ AQ87 ♦ KT7 ♣ QT43

 

West leads the 9♥, East following with the Six.

Assuming that the Diamonds are coming in, you have 8 winners, and the only chance of a 9th trick is in Clubs.  Plan the play.

SOLUTION

With this card combination in Clubs, you can always score two tricks on power alone, and there are two obvious ways to play the suit:

A. Cash the Ace and lead towards the QTx.

B. Run the Queen, and, if it loses to the off-side King, finesse the 9 on the second-round.

According to the Dictionary of Suit Combinations, Plan A is marginally better, but to all intents and purposes we can consider them more or less equal.  Both lines gives us a little less than 50% chance of scoring 3 tricks, and a little more than 50% chance of scoring just 2 tricks.  If we score the 3 tricks, everything is fine, we'll have no fewer than 10 tricks available.

The key situation arises when our play in Clubs yields only 2 tricks.  In this case, we want to get our tricks sooner rather than later.  For example, if we play the A♣, and lead a Club towards the QTx (Plan A), then, whenever we are destined to score just 2 Clubs we'll be scoring the 1st Club and the 4th Club.  By that time, the defenders will have their two Clubs, two Spades, and three Heart tricks.

It's far superior to use Plan B, giving us the better chance to win 2 of the first 3 Clubs.  But, we must play on Clubs immediately, while the Diamond suit provides us with communications.  So, at Trick Two, advance the Q♣ ... this is the full deal:

	♠ Q972 ♥ 3 ♦ AQ983 ♣ A95
♠ A643 ♥ 952 ♦ 52 ♣ K872	Dummy    West            East             South	♠ KT5 ♥ KJT64 ♦ J64 ♣ J6
	♠ J8 ♥ AQ87 ♦ KT7 ♣ QT43

On the actual lie of the cards, either plan would have worked, but you only get full credit if you went for Plan B, and also if you played on Clubs at Trick Two.  And, there is one more little nuance to this hand ... after leading the Q♣, covered by the King and Ace, and then leading a low Club from the board, East wins the Jack, and continues Hearts won by your Ace.  Now, you  lead a Club to the Nine, cash the A♦ unblocking the Ten!  This little precaution unblocks the suit and allows you to pick up Jxxx of Diamonds in the West hand.

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