Clear Defensive Thoughts

Pages: Page 4 of 4

Dealer: North
Vuln: Love All
Scoring: IMPs
  1. spadeA K Q 6 5
  2. heart6 4 3
  3. diamondJ 9 2
  4. clubK 8
  1. spade7 4
  2. heartQ 10 7
  3. diamondQ 10 8 6 5 3
  4. clubA 6
club diamond heart spade NT
N 2 - - 1 1
S 2 - - 1 1
E - - - - -
W - - - - -
Green square in centre
  1. spadeJ 10 8 3 2
  2. heartK 8 5 2
  3. diamondA
  4. clubJ 10 4

Contract: 3NT
Declarer: South
Lead: diamond6
  1. spade9
  2. heartA J 9
  3. diamondK 7 4
  4. clubQ 9 7 5 3 2
Double dummy analyser: makeable contracts
West North East South
1spade Pass 2club
Pass 2spade Pass 2NT
Pass 3NT End
When the hand was played originally all the Souths led a club at this point and all the Wests played low. After winning with clubK the next club was ducked and declarer was home, diamondK being the vital entry to the clubs.

When South leads a club towards dummy West must rise with clubA and remove South's last sure entry by switching to diamondQ - not an easy defence to find.

An alternative defence for West would be to switch to a spade after winning the second heart trick. This also messes up declarer's communications, but West will still be required to find the Merrimac coup of diamondQ if South comes to hand with heartA.
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