From                  15th November, 2006, Board 7

                                          Themes             Timing

                                                                    Postponing Trumps

                                          Difficulty           * * *

                                          Dlr East            Both Vul              Hands Rotated

                                                                                                for Convenience

In the bidding, you discover that E-W are not playing Support Doubles & Redoubles, so you have no inferences about whether or not East has 3-card support for West's Hearts.

West leads the K♦ and you win the Ace.  It's time to ask yourself these three questions:

 - how are you going to play the trump suit?

 - how are you going to play the Club suit?

 - how can you retain trump control in the face of repeated Diamond leads?

If you get everything right, you can make 9 tricks, losing just one trick in each suit.

SOLUTION

Starting with the easy one first, the way to play the trump suit is to hope that one of the opponents has a doubleton Ace ... if you can guess which opponent has the doubleton Ace you can lead through him on the first round, then play low from both hands on the second round, watching with delight as the Ace comes tumbling down on air.  No prizes for guessing that East is the opponent more likely to hold the Ace, and also more likely to be doubleton, given the bidding.

How about the Club suit?  If East holds Ax in trumps, his most likely distribution is 2-3-6-2.  If so, does he hold xx or KQ or honor doubleton?  The odds favor honor doubleton, all the more so as the bidding makes it unlikely that West has both the King and Queen (but it's not impossible).  If East has the honor doubleton case, the way to play the suit is to lead towards the Jack, catching South in a dilemma ... if she hops up with the honor, her Partner's honor is finessable ... if she lets Partner's honor take the trick, then her honor will fall on the second round under the Ace.

Now that we have a plan for each of the black suits, we must find a sequence of plays which will allow us to keep control when South keeps leading Diamonds.  The winning line is to postpone the drawing of trumps, and play on Hearts first:

             Win the A♦

             Heart, won by Declarer's Ten

             Heart, won by East's Ace

             East cashes J♦

             Then another Diamond, ruffed in hand (West pitches a Heart)

             Cash the K♥ (essential step!)

             Spade to the Queen

             J♣, West does not cover, won by East's Queen

             Another Diamond, ruffed on the board.

Now, Declarer has 9 tricks.

	♠ K832 ♥ KJ7 ♦ A5 ♣ AT76
♠ JT4 ♥ 9843 ♦ K3 ♣ K853	North    West          East            South	♠ A5 ♥ A65 ♦ QJT874 ♣ Q9
	♠ Q976 ♥ QT2 ♦ 962 ♣ J42

Keys to Success

   - Realizing that, if the A♠ was doubleton it would likely be with East

   - Also playing East for Qx or Kx of Clubs

   - Playing all 3 rounds of Hearts early (so that West could not pitch Hearts on the Diamonds)

   - Arranging to win the 3rd round of Hearts on the board (for a trump lead)