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Declarer ruffed the diamond lead, cashed the ace of trumps, and crossed to dummy’s eight of trumps. He then ruffed another diamond in his hand. reducing East to just diamond. A 3-3 heart break was unlikely after East’s pre-empt, so declarer planned to make the contract when East held a doubleton (or singleton) heart. At the next trick he led the heart queen. West won with the ace and returned the jack of hearts to dummy’s king. Declarer was now able to ruff dummy’s last diamond, exhausting East of the suit. He then led the club 9, playing low in the dummy. East had nothing but clubs left. After winning with the club 10, he had to play ace and another club. Dummy’s king of clubs won the third round and declarer was able to discard his heart loser. Game made! Do you see one small chance that the defenders had to beat the contract? It was an unlikely move but if West happens to lead a trump, the spade game goes down. There are not enough entries to dummy to remove East’s diamond holding.
Answer Although seven points is enough to respond INT, the stopper of Axx does not strongly suggest playing in notrumps. A jump response, such as 2H or 2D, would show around 8-10 points and you are not strong enough for that. Should you bid 1H or ID? The diamonds are stronger but partner is more likely to hold the major suits than diamonds. I like 1H best. — Knight Features |
5D would have been cold
on the East-West cards but this was difficult for West to judge. With a
different layout of the cards 5D might have gone for 500 or more, even
when 4S was failing the other way. How would you have played the spade
game after West leads the diamond king?
How would you
respond to the take-out double?