Timidity Not Allowed

Pages: Page 5 of 5

Dealer: West
Vuln: Game All
Scoring: Pairs
  1. spadeQ
  2. heartQ 10 9 8 7 6 5
  3. diamondQ J 10 3
  4. clubJ
  1. spadeA 10 8
  2. heart4 3
  3. diamondK 7 6 5
  4. clubA K 5 2
club diamond heart spade NT
N - - 4 4 -
S - - 4 4 -
E 5 4 - - -
W 4 4 - - -
Green square in centre
  1. spade5
  2. heartK
  3. diamondA 9 8 4 2
  4. clubQ 10 9 7 6 4

Contract: 5club
Declarer: West
Lead: spadeQ
  1. spadeK J 9 7 6 4 3 2
  2. heartA J 2
  3. diamond—
  4. club8 3
Double dummy analyser: makeable contracts
West North East South
1club Pass 3club* 3spade
Dble 4heart 5club Pass
Pass Pass

* deliberate underbidding

Instead of immediately drawing trumps, West exited with a heart, won by South's ace. The spade exit was ruffed in dummy, hand entered with clubA, a heart ruffed and the last trump drawn with dummy's clubQ. Now a diamond to the seven end-played North - either he had to open up the diamonds or concede a ruff and discard.

Had declarer drawn trumps before playing an initial heart then the defence would have prevailed - declarer has to waste a vital extra round of trumps in order to eliminate hearts. Try it out!

Both North and South were rather timid on this deal. I cannot imagine many modern players passing over opener's 1club or contenting themselves with a mere 3spade with South's hand.
Previous page

This section is a placeholder for the forum. For the time being it will be a noshow class.