From                  21st January, 2007, Board 9                

                                          Difficulty           * * *

                                          Dlr North          E-W Vul
 

♠ KT3 ♥ Q742 ♦ 65 ♣ AKQ2	North    Dummy       East             South	♠ A2 ♥ AT8 ♦ QJT73 ♣ 973
West    North   East     South                            Pass    1♦        Pass               1♥        Pass    2♥        Pass               3NT     Pass    Pass    Pass

South leads the Spade Five, a fourth-best lead which tells you that South started with 4 or 5 in the suit (where is that pesky Four?).

One line of play is to duck the first or second round of Spades, catering for the 5-3 situation.  The hope is that the long Spades will be cut off, but it’s a slim hope, 75% of the time South will have a Diamond honor and it will be down one.  There’s no escape from that scenario, so let’s rephrase the question and say “How do you give yourself the best chance of making 9 tricks when Spades are 4-4?”.

We need to get the Diamonds going and that’s best done by leading the suit twice from dummy, catering for some of the 4-2 breaks (such as Kx or Ax or AK or AKxx) as well as the 3-3 breaks.  It almost looks too easy, doesn’t it?  Win the A♠, cross to the A♣, Diamond lead won by South’s Ace or King, Spade return ducked (in case they are 5-3 and North has the missing high Diamond), Spade won by Dummy’s King, another Diamond, etc, etc.

What can go wrong?  We’ll give you a clue … something bad might happen at Trick Three.

SOLUTION

Yes, indeed, it would be quite disastrous if we actually won the first round of Diamonds!  Now, with the A♠ having been squandered at Trick One, we are short an entry back to our hand to enjoy the Diamonds.  What’s the solution?  Yes, win the first Spade on the board!  This precludes us from holding up until the third round of Spades, but whenever Spades are 4-4 (and Diamonds are 4-2) we’ll make our contract.

	♠ J984 ♥ K3 ♦ A9 ♣ JT854
♠ KT3 ♥ Q742 ♦ 65 ♣ AKQ2	North    Dummy       East            South	♠ A2 ♥ AT8 ♦ QJT73 ♣ 973
	♠ Q765 ♥ J965 ♦ K842 ♣ 6

Perhaps the most practical line of play depends on who is sitting South.  If it’s Zia, who will certainly duck that first Diamond, then our suggested line of play is the way to go.  If it is a less experienced player who would not dream of such a play, then perhaps we should win that first Spade trick in our hand (allowing for a duck of the second round of Spades, catering for some 5-3 situations). 

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