From                   21st May, 2008        Board 7

                                          Theme                Elimination Play

                                          Difficulty            * * *

                                          Dlr North           Both Vul           Hands Rotated

                                                                                              for Convenience

Against 3♦, West leads the A♥, then K♥ which you ruff.

Having already lost one Heart, the danger is that Declarer will also lose 3 Clubs and a Spade.  That will be down one even if trumps break 2-2.

If trumps are 2-2 and if the Q♠ is onside then you can make your contract easily enough.  But, if trumps really are 2-2, then that Spade finesse is only a 50% chance.  What’s the 100% line of play?

SOLUTION

This one is a classic elimination play followed by a throw-in.  After ruffing the second round of Hearts, we cross to Dummy’s A♦, ruff another Heart, cash the K♦ and are relieved to see that the trumps split.  Now, we cross to the A♠, and ruff Dummy’s last Heart.  At this point Declarer and Dummy are both out of Heart, and both have one trump left.  All that is needed is to cash the other high Spade, and exit a Spade.  We don’t care who wins that Spade trick, that defender will now have to concede a ruff and discard, or else break open the Club suit.  Either way, there will be only two Club losers, and Declarer makes 9 tricks.

Keys for Success

-         Eliminating the Hearts from Dummy

-         Resisting the temptation to take the 50% Spade finesse, using the 100% throw-in instead.

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