All Or Nothing

Pages: Page 5 of 5

Dealer: West
Vuln: N-S
Scoring: Pairs
  1. spade8 7 3
  2. heart10 5
  3. diamondJ 10 9 6
  4. clubJ 8 5 4
  1. spadeA Q J 5
  2. heartJ 3
  3. diamondA Q 7 4 2
  4. clubK Q
club diamond heart spade NT
N - - - - -
S - - - - -
E 3 5 6 5 6
W 3 5 6 5 6
Green square in centre
  1. spade10 4
  2. heartA Q 9 6 4 2
  3. diamond5 3
  4. clubA 7 2

Contract: 6NT
Declarer: West
Lead: diamondJ
  1. spadeK 9 6 2
  2. heartK 8 7
  3. diamondK 8
  4. club10 9 6 3
Double dummy analyser: makeable contracts
West North East South
1diamond Pass 1heart Pass
2spade Pass 3heart Pass
4heart Pass 5club Pass
6NT End
How about leading heartJ and, if North fails to cover, put in the queen? If South ducks now then you conveniently will be in dummy to take the necessary spade finesse. The problem with playing hearts in the normal way is that you will eventually reach a three card end position with spadeAQJ in hand and the lead in dummy. You will be unable to retain the lead in dummy after a first finesse.

So, the winning line is to win diamondQ, lead heartJ overtaking with the queen, spade finesse, heart to the nine. Win the return, cash clubK, overtake clubQ and run the hearts. The second spade finesse comes at trick twelve.
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