Bridge Hand of the Week
Options by Tim Bourke - May 20 2013
| Dlr: West | ♠ 6 4 2 | |||||||||||||
| Vul: E-W | ♥ — | |||||||||||||
| ♦ 8 7 6 4 2 | ||||||||||||||
| ♣ A K J 10 4 | ||||||||||||||
| ♠ A K 10 7 3 | ||||||||||||||
| ♥ 9 7 6 4 | ||||||||||||||
| ♦ K J | ||||||||||||||
| ♣ Q 5 | ||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||
East transferred to hearts over the strong 1NT. You bid 2♠, raised to game by your partner. West leads the ♥K. How do you plan to take 10 tricks?
Solution
Declarer saw that there was little to be gained by ruffing the heart and cashing the ♠A and ♠K. That would have required either Q-J doubleton in trumps or the hand with three trumps to hold four or more clubs. Playing a third round of trumps would have resulted in the loss of at least three more hearts and likely two diamond tricks.
Declarer adopted a better plan – losing a trump trick early and keeping a trump in dummy to protect against a heart continuation.
After ruffing the opening lead of the ♥K, declarer played a trump to the 10 and West’s jack. As long as trumps were 3-2, he was home. This was the full deal:
| ♠ 6 4 2 | ||
| ♥ — | ||
| ♦ 8 7 6 4 2 | ||
| ♣ A K J 10 4 | ||
| ♠ Q J 5 | ♠ 9 8 | |
| ♥ A K 8 2 | ♥ Q J 10 5 3 | |
| ♦ A Q 10 5 | ♦ 9 3 | |
| ♣ 9 6 | ♣ 8 7 3 2 | |
| ♠ A K 10 7 3 | ||
| ♥ 9 7 6 4 | ||
| ♦ K J | ||
| ♣ Q 5 |
In practice, West hoped that East had the ♣Q and exited with a heart, which was ruffed in dummy. Declarer then crossed back to his hand with the ♣Q and cashed the top two spades. When all followed, he claimed 11 tricks – four trumps, two heart ruffs and five clubs. As you can see, cashing the top trumps and playing on clubs would not have worked. West would ruff the third club, cash a high heart, put East in with another heart and collect two more tricks on the diamond return.