From                   26th April, 2006, Board 30

                                          Theme                Hold-Up Play

                                          Difficulty            * * *

                                          Dlr East              None  Vul

West leads the J♥.

That’s an inconvenient lead, to say the least.  Not only does it knock out Dummy’s side-suit entry, but there is the threat in the air of Heart over-ruffs due to our lack of trump spots.

Is West leading a singleton, or did he start with a doubleton?  It seems very likely that the lead is from a doubleton … East, non-vulnerable, in first seat would likely have found a call with KQxxxx of Hearts.

Plan the play.

SOLUTION

It’s important to duck the first Heart in an attempt to sever communications between the defenders.  So, we win the second Heart, cross to the A♠, and lead a Club towards the board.  If the K♣ wins the trick, we cross back to the K♠ and lead another Club (hoping that East has not cleverly ducked the first Club) … if West now hops up with the A♣, the Q♠ is our entry to the board for the Q♣.

If the first Club is won by East, he’ll return a Heart which we’ll ruff low, hoping that West started with 3 trumps … if that is the case, after the overruff, we’ll be able to draw trumps in two rounds, get a Diamond ruff on the board, and hopefully guess where is the J♣ for 9 tricks.

Keys to Success

   - Realizing that East is unlikely to have 6 Hearts

   - Holding up on the opening Heart lead to sever the defenders' communications          

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