WEST
leads the eight of spades against 3NT and East plays the jack. How will you tackle the deal as declarer? Suppose you win the first spade trick and play a diamond. West will rise with the king of diamonds and play another spade. East scores the king and queen of spades and plays a fourth round, setting up a long card in the suit. With only eight tricks at your disposal you will have to play another diamond. East wins the ace and cashes his last spade. That is one down. What could you have done about it? You should aim to remove West’s cards in the spade suit so that when he takes his diamond honour he will have no spade to play. This can easily be done by ducking the first round of spades, allowing East’s jack to win. The defenders cannot now beat the contract. Say East plays the spade king next. You win with the ace and play a diamond. Whenever West chooses to win with his king, he will have no spade to play. Is that all there is to be said about the hand? No, because East can prevent such a first-round hold-up if he plays cleverly at Trick 1. It is fairly obvious from South’s leap all the way to 3NT that he has a double spade stop. East should therefore play the nine of spades at Trick 1, forcing declarer to take one of his stoppers (the ten) immediately. Now West has a spade left when he takes the king of diamonds. The spades are cleared and the contract, once again, tumbles to defeat.
Partner’s initial double of 3S was for take-out.
What will say now?
Answer When the deal arose in the Indonesian Championship, South bid 4NT to ask his partner to choose a suit. The result was two down in 5C when 4S doubled would have been two down! You should pass the second double when you have only four-card suits. If partner has enough high cards to make 5C cheap, he will probably be able to beat 4S.
WEST
leads the eight of spades against 3NT and East plays the jack. How will you tackle the deal as declarer? Suppose you win the first spade trick and play a diamond. West will rise with the king of diamonds and play another spade. East scores the king and queen of spades and plays a fourth round, setting up a long card in the suit. With only eight tricks at your disposal you will have to play another diamond. East wins the ace and cashes his last spade. That is one down. What could you have done about it? You should aim to remove West’s cards in the spade suit so that when he takes his diamond honour he will have no spade to play. This can easily be done by ducking the first round of spades, allowing East’s jack to win. The defenders cannot now beat the contract. Say East plays the spade king next. You win with the ace and play a diamond. Whenever West chooses to win with his king, he will have no spade to play. Is that all there is to be said about the hand? No, because East can prevent such a first-round hold-up if he plays cleverly at Trick 1. It is fairly obvious from South’s leap all the way to 3NT that he has a double spade stop. East should therefore play the nine of spades at Trick 1, forcing declarer to take one of his stoppers (the ten) immediately. Now West has a spade left when he takes the king of diamonds. The spades are cleared and the contract, once again, tumbles to defeat.
Answer