Not Much Consolation

Pages: Page 4 of 5

Dealer: South
Vuln: Game All
Scoring: Rubber
  1. spadeK J 6 4
  2. heart9 7 4
  3. diamond9 8 4 2
  4. club8 6
  1. spade10 9 8 5 3
  2. heartQ 10 8 3 2
  3. diamond3
  4. clubA 4
club diamond heart spade NT
N - - - - -
S - - - - -
E 2 - 4 1 2
W 2 - 4 1 2
Green square in centre
  1. spadeQ
  2. heartK J 5
  3. diamondA K 6 5
  4. clubK J 9 7 2

Contract: 3NTx
Declarer: East
Lead: spade2
  1. spadeA 7 2
  2. heartA 6
  3. diamondQ J 10 7
  4. clubQ 10 5 3
Double dummy analyser: makeable contracts
West North East South
1diamond*
1spade Pass 2club Pass
2heart Pass 3diamond Pass
3heart Pass 3NT Pass
Pass Dble End

* playing strong NT

You can see what's coming - three more hearts will reduce you to the spadeA, a winning diamond and club10x, whereupon declarer will endplay you with a spade. So, following the principle described earlier, you casually discard the club5. Declarer plays off the hearts, on which you pitch a low spade and diamond, then leads dummy's club and trances. It is at this point that you realise that partner must have spadeJ for the double, and you could safely have kept club10x and pitched the spadeA and a diamond, keeping a low spade. When declarer plays a spade, partner will win and must play a club rather than a diamond. It should be obvious at this point, but it's a tough defence for one off. Not as tough as minus 1150 was, when declarer guessed clubs right!
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