From                   3rd May, 2006, Board 16

                                          Theme                Avoidance Play

                                                                     Trump Control

                                          Difficulty            * * *

                                          Dlr East             E-W Vul        Hands Rotated for

                                                                                           Convenience

South’s 2♣ was DONT, showing Clubs and another suit, and 2♦ was an attempt to find that other suit.

West leads the trump Nine.

You play the Q♥, which holds, East playing the Five.  With almost all of the missing high cards marked with East, you need to get those Clubs going to make this contract.  What is the best way of doing this?

SOLUTION

Not only must you get the Clubs going, you must also maintain trump control, and the best way to do this is to play the K♣ from the board at Trick 2.  This puts East on play, and he cannot continue Hearts without giving up his trump trick.  The best he can do is exit a Diamond, and now Declarer has the timing for 9 tricks, losing a Spade, a Heart and 2 Clubs.

It would be wrong to play a low Club from the board at Trick 2, as this would allow West to win the trick, and lead another trump … this will prevent the Club ruff and hold Declarer to 8 tricks.  Another mistake would be to cross to the K♦ at Trick 2 for the purpose of leading towards the K♣.  The A♣ is most likely to be off-side, and releasing the K♦ unnecessarily will expose Declarer to a force in Diamonds later in the play … not a problem on the actual hand, but defeat if Hearts or Clubs had been 4-1.

Keys to Success

    - Remembering that East had almost all of the enemy HCP's

    - That Avoidance Play of the K♣, designed to keep East from gaining the lead