From                   3rd June, 2009, Board 15

                                          Difficulty            * * *

                                          N-S Vul

East’s Double gets West off to the ♦K lead, then a Diamond to East’s Queen.  The ♦A is cashed, and East exits a Diamond to South’s Jack as West pitches a couple of Spades.

First of all, what did you pitch from Dummy on the 3^rd and 4^th round of Diamonds?  It would be nice to make an overtrick if Hearts are 3-3, so you pitch just one Heart and a Club.

Next, you cash the top Hearts, but, alas, they don’t break 3-3, and, surprising, it is West who shows out on the 3^rd round, pitching another Spade.  You pitch a Spade and a Club.

So, your 9^th trick must come from Clubs.  What’s the best way of achieving that?

SOLUTION

West is 2-2 in the red suits and is complete distribution appears to be:

            4=2=2=5         Not so likely, perhaps he would have pitched a Club by now

            6=2=2=3         Possible, but maybe White vs Red he would have made some noise

                                    in the bidding, either with a simple overcall or a preempt

            5=2=2=4         That seems most likely, though there are no guarantees.

OK, let’s guess that West started life as 5=2=2=4.  In that case he is down to two Spades and four Clubs, in which case the winning play is to relieve him of his two Spades by cashing the King and then the Ace, after which you can run around the ♣J to West’s presumed Queen.  Now West is end-played, as the complete position is:

Well played by South.  She gave herself the chance for 10 tricks by pitching only one Heart from Dummy.  Then when the Hearts were not 3-3 she made an intelligent guess as to West’s distribution.  Having done that, she extracted West’s Spades and end-played the poor guy.  Nicely done!

Now, suppose that Declarer had got the distribution right, as above, but that it turns out that East’s singleton Club is actually the Queen.  This is the hypothetical 4-card ending:

                                    North

                                    ♠

                                    ♥ 98

                                    ♦

                                    ♣ J8

            West                                        East

            ♠                                              ♠ Q

            ♥                                              ♥ T

            ♦                                              ♦ 4

            ♣ T754                                    ♣ Q

                                    Declarer

                                    ♠

                                    ♥

                                    ♦

                                    ♣ AK96

Dummy leads the Jack, covered by the Queen and won by the Ace.  Don’t get careless now!  If you play a low Club on the following trick then West will fiendishly duck, putting you in Dummy and allowing East to win the last two tricks.  So, having won the Ace, Declarer exits with the Club Nine, with West wins with his Ten.  Now, at Trick 12, he must lead away from the 75 into Declarer’s A6!
 

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