NEW TO THE TABLE. PLAY OF THE HAND

North Dealer None vulnerable

                           Spade-small A42

                           Heart-small J32

                           Diamond-small AKQ8

                           Club-small KJ5

Spade-small KQJ                                         Spade-small 97653

Heart-small T95                                          Heart-small AK

Diamond-small T9632                                      Diamond-small 75

Club-small Q8                                            Club-small T972

                         Spade-small T8

                         Heart-small Q8764

                         Diamond-small J4

                         Club-small A643

 

Richard quite rightly states 4Heart-small is the preferable game contract instead of 3NT as 3NT has almost no chance of making. It is therefore slightly ironic that on the actual hand with very good declarer play 3NT can make due to the favourable location of the QClub-small, AKHeart-small, and as West can also be squeezed in the black suits.

Assuming North is declarer with a normal Spade-small lead from East. After holding up for 2 rounds declarer leads a Diamond-small to the JDiamond-small and then finesses the JClub-small. North now plays another round of Diamond-small. Afterwards East now has:

 

Spade-small 97

Heart-small AK

 Diamond-small -

Club-small T97

When Diamond-small are continued East either has to discard a Club-small or discard 2 Heart-small, 2Spade-small, or a Heart-small and a Spade-small. If East discards a Club-small then North has 4Club-small, 4Diamond-small, and a Spade-small trick  to make their contract.  If East discards 2 Spade-small winners then they are virtually marked as protecting Club-small and Heart-small so a switch to a low Heart-small is  marked to establish a Heart-small winner and then North will have 3Club-small, 4Diamond-small, 1Heart-small, and 1Spade-small trick to make their contract. Similarly if they give up a Heart-small and a Spade-small.

North must be careful to discard Heart-small from dummy and not a Club-small,  and there perhaps lies East’s best chance ..... the smooth discard of a Club-small on the third Diamond-small will give North a small opportunity to go wrong and there is also a chance that West might produce a Club-small stopper. Making 3NT is by no means easy and only very very experienced players are likely to foresee the necessity to take the Club-small finesse at trick 5 to avoid blocking the Club-small suit if East does discard a Club-small and also to retain the KClub-small as an entry to cash the  Heart-small winner if East discards 2 Spade-small.

East instead of having the less likely AKHeart-small might also have made similar Spade-small discards protecting the  KxHeart-small in which case West will be able to cash their winning Diamond-small when they get in with the AHeart-small for down 1. 

 

 

Started by SEAN LYNCH on 09 Jun 2019 at 04:37PM

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