From 3rd December, 2008 Difficulty * * * * Dlr West Both Vul
West leads the A♥, then the Q♥ which you ruff. Next, you play the A♠ and West shows out (pitching a Heart). If Clubs are 3-2 then there is no problem, you can just draw trumps, knock out the A♦ and claim 11 tricks. Can you make the contract if Clubs are 4-1?
The answer is “Yes”, provided that the player with the 4 Clubs also has the longer Diamonds. In that case, you can concede a Diamond, cash a Diamond, ruff a Diamond, and if all is well the player with both minors guarded (that would have to be West, of course) will be squeezed.
OK, so where’s the snag?
SOLUTION
Let’s say that West started 0=5=4=4. We’ll have to ruff a Diamond at some point in order to “isolate the menace”. In other words, that ruff is needed so that East cannot retain a Diamond guard and thus free West from the squeeze. The danger is that we will lose trump control if we embark on this line of play: Ruff the second Heart Draw all 4 of East’s trumps Lead a Diamond to the King (West must not hop up with the Ace) A Diamond to the Queen and Ace Ruff the Heart return Oops! We just ran out of trumps! Now we cannot ruff a Diamond, meaning that West can hold on to his Clubs and East can take responsibility for the Diamonds.
What’s the solution? Yes, we must play on Diamonds before drawing the remaining trumps, that way Dummy will be able to ruff a Heart after West takes his A♦. So the correct sequence is: Ruff the second Heart Draw one round of trumps Diamond to the King Diamond to the Queen and West’s Ace Now, West cannot lead a Heart, that will be ruffed in Dummy and we can pitch our Club loser. So, he returns a which is ruffed. Then the trumps are drawn and on the last trump West is squeezed.
Keys to Success - Realizing the danger of the 4-1 Club break - Seeing the squeeze possibilities - Postponing the drawing of trumps until after the A♦ was knocked out (to preserve trump control) - Ruffing a Diamond to make sure that only West could guard Diamonds (“isolating the menace”)
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