From                 16th August, 2006, Board 24

                                          Difficulty           * * *

                                          Dlr West           None Vul
 

♠ AJ8 ♥ AKT86 ♦ 3 ♣ KJ96	North    West      Dummy             South	♠ Q3 ♥ Q73 ♦ KJ85 ♣ A752
West   North   East     South              1♥      2♥        2♠        Pass              4♥      Pass     Pass    Pass

North leads the Spade Two, which is 3^rd or 5^th best according to their lead conventions.  Low from the board, and the Nine is won by the Jack.  Plan the play.

SOLUTION

The bidding tells us that there is the definite danger of a 4-1 (or even 5-0) trump break, so we would prefer not to ruff our Spade loser on the board, and then later find that we cannot pick up the trump suit.  Accordingly, at Trick One, we lead a Diamond up to the board (yes, that’s why we played a low Spade from the board at Trick One).  Our goal is to establish a Diamond trick for a Spade pitch, rendering the Spade ruff unnecessary.  North rises with the Ace, and exits a Spade.  We win our Ace, cash the A♥, cross to the Q♥.  Now, the K♦ takes care of the Spade loser, and, if North showed out on the second round of trumps, we have a marked finesse against South.

	♠ 76542 ♥ 2 ♦ AQ742 ♣ T4
♠ AJ8 ♥ AKT86 ♦ 3 ♣ KJ96	North    West     Dummy            South	♠ Q3 ♥ Q73 ♦ KJ85 ♣ A752
	♠ KT9 ♥ J954 ♦ T96 ♣ Q83

The Clubs turn out to be favorable, so no fewer than 12 tricks are made.

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