From                   7th July, 2010, Board 23

                                          Difficulty            * * * 

                                          Both Vul

Typical overbidding by Partner gets you to another precarious contract.  West leads the ♠K, what’s your plan?

Of course, you can do better than praying that trumps are 2-2 and that the ♣K is with West.  With West preempting, East is quite likely to have 3 or 4 trumps.  A better line is to plan on ruffing two Spades high and finessing against East’s ♥T … that brings in 12 tricks whenever the ♣K is onside and East has Txx or Tx of trumps.  But you can do even better than that, you’ll be looking for a way to make 12 tricks even when the ♣K is badly placed.

SOLUTION

Yes, the route to success is to go for three ruffs in Dummy, and here is the sequence of plays:

            ♠K opening lead is won by Declarer

            Cross to the ♣A

            Finesse the Heart Nine

            Ruff a Spade

            Cash ♦AK (pitching a Club from hand)

            Ruff a Diamond

            Ruff a Spade

            Ruff a Diamond

            Ruff a Spade

At this point, Dummy exits with a Club and Declarer scores the last two tricks with the ♥J8 sitting over East’s ♥T4.  This line works regardless of who holds the ♣K.  12 well-earned tricks!

The hand that was actually played in The Wednesday Game had the ♣K obligingly onside, so those Declarers who took the inferior line of just two Spade ruffs got lucky.

Home     PlayArchives    BiddingArchives    Conventions