Two Pronged Dilemma

Pages: Page 4 of 4

Dealer: South
Vuln: E-W
Scoring: IMPs
  1. spadeJ 4
  2. heartK 8 7 5 4
  3. diamondA 6 3
  4. clubJ 9 2
  1. spadeK 10 7 6
  2. heartQ 10 9 3 2
  3. diamondQ J 8
  4. club6
club diamond heart spade NT
N 3 - 1 5 3
S 3 - 1 5 3
E - - - - -
W - - - - -
Green square in centre
  1. spade3
  2. heartJ 6
  3. diamondK 10 7 4 2
  4. clubQ 8 7 5 3

Contract: 4spade
Declarer: South
Lead: diamondQ
  1. spadeA Q 9 8 5 2
  2. heartA
  3. diamond9 5
  4. clubA K 10 4
Double dummy analyser: makeable contracts
West North East South
1spade
Pass 1NT Pass 2club
Pass 2heart Pass 3spade
Pass 4spade End
Chagas won the opening lead in dummy and proceeded to ignore both black suit finesses. A heart to the ace was followed by a low spade from hand, catching West on the horns of a two pronged dilemma. If he played low dummy would win and declarer's diamond loser would disappear on heartK, but if he flew in with spadeK then there would only be one spade loser. Simple, elegant, and ten tricks!
You can see what would have happened if Chagas had taken either black suit finesse - one off. A spade finesse creates two immediate trump winners for West and with dummy devoid of further entries a club and diamond are also lost. A club finesse at trick two requires repeating, so West ruffs, puts his partner in with diamondK and obtains a further ruff to go with spadeK.
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