A Crucial Time

Pages: Page 4 of 4

Dealer: West
Vuln: E-W
Scoring: IMPs
  1. spadeA 8 3
  2. heart10 7 5 2
  3. diamondA J 9 6 3
  4. club8
  1. spadeK Q J 5 4
  2. heart—
  3. diamondK 10 4 2
  4. clubQ 10 5 3
club diamond heart spade NT
N 1 - 2 - -
S 1 - 3 - -
E - 1 - 2 2
W - 1 - 2 2
Green square in centre
  1. spade10 7 6 2
  2. heartA J 9 8
  3. diamondQ 8 5
  4. clubK J

Contract: 4heartx
Declarer: South
Lead: spadeK
  1. spade9
  2. heartK Q 6 4 3
  3. diamond7
  4. clubA 9 7 6 4 2
Double dummy analyser: makeable contracts
West North East South
1spade 2diamond 3spade 4club
Dble Pass Pass 4heart
Pass Pass Dble Pass
Pass Pass
This timing is crucial on this hand. If you cashed all your aces ready for a cross-ruff, or led a trump at trick two then you would have been disappointed. The key play is to play clubA, ruff a club, heart from dummy at tricks two, three and four. East may duck so you win and ruff another club, so East over-ruffs. What does she do now? If she plays another trump to prevent a third club ruff then South loses only two trumps and a club.

If East rises with heartA at trick four to play another trump then the result is the same. Alternatively, if East refuses to over-ruff at every opportunity, declarer cannot enjoy the long clubs but is able to amass ten tricks by cross-ruffing.
Previous page

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