From                 14th February, 2007, Board 17

                                          Themes             Blocking & Unblocking

                                          Difficulty           * * *

                                          Dlr West           None Vul           Hands Rotated

                                                                                               for Convenience

The E-W sequence was their way of escaping from 1NT doubled.  West was showing a weak hand with Club length.

West leads the Diamond Six, and East wins the King and shifts to the K♥.

It’s highly likely that the K♠ is with East, in which case you can count on 9 tricks via 5 trumps, the A♥ and 3 Clubs.  Is there a 10^th trick available?

One possibility is to cross to the A♣, then lead the Q♠.  East will unobligingly duck this, and now you can lead a Diamond towards your Queen, setting up the Diamond trick, and making 10 tricks if the K♠ turns out to be doubleton.  That’s one way to make 10 tricks, is there a better line?

SOLUTION

Here’s an intriguing alternative in our play of the trump suit.  Lead the Queen from the board, unblocking the Seven!  Now lead the Ten, the hope being that West has the doubleton Eight and that, if East covers the second round, the trump Six will be an entry back to the board for a Diamond lead.  This works like a charm, as this is the full deal:

	♠ QT6 ♥ 8764 ♦ 9542 ♣ A5
♠ 84 ♥ T5 ♦ J76 ♣ J98432	North    West          East            South	♠ K53 ♥ KQJ93 ♦ AK3 ♣ 76
	♠ AJ972 ♥ A2 ♦ QT8 ♣ KQT

That’s all very well, but is it really better to play West for 8x in Spades in preference to playing East for Kx of Spades?  We would say “Yes!”  West has shown Club length, and surely the odds favor East starting with 3 Spades.  And if East should have started with K8x?  Then 9 tricks is the maximum regardless of what you do.

Keys to Success

   - Realizing that correct play of the trump suit can provide an extra entry to the board

   - Concluding that the trump length is more likely to be with East

   - Taking care to unblock the Seven on the first round of trumps