From                 15th November, 2006, Board 24

                                          Theme               Scrambling Tricks

                                          Difficulty           * * *

                                          Dlr South          None Vul               Hands Rotated

                                                                                                  for Convenience

West leads the Heart Two, won by Dummy's Ace and you pitch a Diamond from your hand.  You lead a Spade from Dummy, and South shows out!  Ooh la la!  So much for making 12 or 13 tricks, now you are fighting for mere survival.  Plan the play.

SOLUTION

This one is not so difficult if we keep our wits about us.  There's no hope of being able to enjoy the long Clubs, we don't have sufficient trump control.  The only chance is if West started with 5-3-3-2 distribution, in which case we can scramble 10 tricks.  We win the A♠, cash A♦, ruff a Diamond, ruff a Heart, ruff a Diamond, ruff a Heart, and cash AK♣.  That's 9 tricks in, and we still have the QJ♠ which will provide the 10th trick.

	♠ 764 ♥ AJT9 ♦ 7 ♣ Q9765
♠ KT982 ♥ K52 ♦ K82 ♣ 84	North    West          East            South	♠ ♥ Q87643 ♦ QJT53 ♣ J3
	♠ AQJ53 ♥ ♦ A964 ♣ AKT2

Keys to Success

   - Remaining undismayed by the 5-0 trump break!

   - Scrambling home on a cross-ruff