From                  24th January, 2007, Board 3                

                                          Difficulty           * * *

                                          Dlr South           E-W Vul
 

♠ QJ ♥ 642 ♦ QJT75 ♣ AJ6	North    Dummy      East             South	♠ AT3 ♥ K9 ♦ A2 ♣ K97543
South   West    North   East                  1♠        Pass    1NT     2♣                 2♠        3♣       Pass    3NT                 Pass    Pass    Pass

South leads the Spade Seven, won by Dummy’s Queen, North following with the Two.

Nine tricks are possible, via 2 Spades, a Diamond, and 6 Clubs.  However, if you play on Clubs right away, and they don’t come in, you’ll probably go down … North is more likely to have the enemy Club stop (based on South’s known Spade length), she’ll get out with a Heart and that will be that.

Can you see a better plan?

SOLUTION

The opponents have just 15 HCP’s between them, and the bidding suggests that they are split 11-4 or 10-5.  The odds very much favor South holding the K♦, in which case the contract is cold.  We can play A♦ and a low Diamond … South wins his King, and can do nothing to harm Declarer.  Furthermore, if it turns out that the Clubs were 2-2 all along, then we’ll make 11 tricks (12 if South does not grab her Ace pronto).

	♠ 2 ♥ QJT753 ♦ 9863 ♣ Q2
♠ QJ ♥ 642 ♦ QJT75 ♣ AJ6	North    Dummy      East            South	♠ AT3 ♥ K9 ♦ A2 ♣ K97543
	♠ K987654 ♥ A8 ♦ K4 ♣ T8

The suggested line will not be a success if North perversely shows up with the K♦.  But all will not necessarily be lost.  There will be an inevitable Heart shift, and, if we are lucky, the suit will block … South might hold Ax, AJ, or AQ, or she might even hold AQT and not see the importance of playing the Queen on the first round of the suit!

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