Heroics Are Not Required Here

Pages: Page 4 of 4

Dealer: South
Vuln: Love All
Scoring: Butler IMPs
  1. spadeQ 10 6
  2. heart10 8 2
  3. diamondJ 9
  4. clubA K 10 6 4
  1. spadeK 9 4 2
  2. heartA K
  3. diamondQ 5
  4. clubQ J 8 3 2
club diamond heart spade NT
N - - - - -
S - - - - -
E 3 3 4 5 3
W 3 3 4 5 4
Green square in centre
  1. spadeA J 7 5
  2. heartQ J 7 6
  3. diamondA 10 8 2
  4. club5

Contract: 4spade
Declarer: West
Lead: heart2
  1. spade8 3
  2. heart9 5 4 3
  3. diamondK 7 6 4 3
  4. club9 7
Double dummy analyser: makeable contracts
West North East South
Pass
1club Pass 1diamond Pass
1spade Pass 2heart Pass
2NT Pass 4spade Pass
Pass Pass
Heroics are not required here. You should cross to spadeA at trick two and lead a club. This is slightly better than playing a low club from hand at trick two - just imagine if the North-South hands were exchanged. Assuming that North wins and switches to a diamond, you will rise with diamondA, cross back to hand with spadeK, unblock heartK and ruff a club. If all has passed off quietly then you cannot be prevented from pitching diamondQ on a heart and playing on cross ruff lines. The traps on this hand are a) finessing in trumps and b) failing to play a club early before cashing spadeAK. Agree?
Previous page
This section is a placeholder for the forum. For the time being it will be a noshow class.