Plain Sailing

Pages: Page 4 of 4

Dealer: North
Vuln: Love All
Scoring: Rubber
  1. spadeJ 9 8
  2. heartK 8 5 4
  3. diamond8
  4. clubA K 7 5 4
  1. spadeK 6 4
  2. heart—
  3. diamondQ 7 6 5 4 2
  4. clubQ 10 6 2
club diamond heart spade NT
N 3 - 2 4 4
S 4 - 2 4 4
E - 3 - - -
W - 2 - - -
Green square in centre
  1. spade3 2
  2. heartQ 9 7 6 3 2
  3. diamondA J 10 3
  4. club8

Contract: 4spade
Declarer: South
Lead: diamond4
  1. spadeA Q 10 7 5
  2. heartA J 10
  3. diamondK 9
  4. clubJ 9 3
Double dummy analyser: makeable contracts
West North East South
1club 1heart 1spade
Pass 2spade Pass 4spade
Pass Pass Pass
Replaying the hand again with a little assistance from teacher, we return to the crucial point. Instead of finessing the spade8, we rise with the ace and immediately play another, fearful of the possibility of a defensive cross-ruff. West wins and reverts to diamonds. Discarding a club from dummy, declarer wins in hand and crosses to the clubK to learn of East's singleton. A heart finesse is followed by heartA, and finally declarer crosses to dummy with spadeJ to cash heartK and ditch her club loser. 4spade made and +420.

Think about the all the bidding and play lessons for the four players encapsulated in that single deal. Possibly the one lesson they might have learned is open the bidding with 11+ points. It's all plain sailing now...ish.
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