Bridge Hand of the Week

Source: www.acbl.org

Sparkling by Tim Bourke – Feb 6 2012

Dlr: East	♠ Q 7 4
Vul: E-W	♥ A K Q J
	♦ J 3
	♣ K Q J 10
	♠ A 8 6
	♥ 7 5 4
	♦ A K 9 6
	♣ A 9 5
West North East South     2♠ 2NT Pass 6NT All Pass

East’s 2♠ is a weak two-bid (6-9 high-card points and six spades).

As East is a solid type in the bidding, how do you plan to make 12 tricks after West leads his singleton ♠2?

Solution

You should play low from dummy and take East’s 9 with your ace. You have 11 top tricks, and only the diamond suit offers any real opportunity for a 12th trick. The first assumption to make is that East needs the ♦Q for his opening bid, so cross to dummy in hearts to lead the ♦J.

After taking East’s queen with the ace, you could cross back to dummy with a heart to finesse the ♦9. However, this would fail if the full deal was

	♠ Q 7 4
	♥ A K Q J
	♦ J 3
	♣ K Q J 10
♠ 2		♠ K J 10 9 5 3
♥ 10 9 8 2		♥ 6 3
♦ 10 7 5 4		♦ Q 8 2
♣ 8 6 3 2		♣ 7 4
	♠ A 8 6
	♥ 7 5 4
	♦ A K 9 6
	♣ A 9 5

Instead, when both opponents follow to the second heart, cash your remaining heart winners. If West has four hearts, cash the ace and king of clubs. On this deal, you will play your remaining club winners. This will reduce you to ♦K 9 6 while West sits over you with ♦10 7 5. The idea now is to lead the ♦3 towards your hand, intending to cover East’s card. Suppose East follows with the 2. You cover with the 6, and West wins the trick with his 7 but he must then lead into your ♦K 9 tenace. If East plays the 8, you will cover with the 9. After winning with the 10, West will have to lead from the ♦7 5 into your ♦K 6. In fact, on the above layout, this plan yields two more tricks no matter how the diamonds originally lay.

If the hearts prove to be 3-3, cash the clubs. This succeeds as on the above layout when the clubs are no worse that 4-2. It also wins when West began with 1=3=4=5 shape and discards a club on the fourth heart. (If he discards a diamond from this shape, finesse the nine of diamonds and hope for the best.)

If East has a singleton or void in hearts or clubs, the simplest (and single-dummy best) plan is play him to have begun with the ♦10 too.