You could duck Hearts twice,
hoping that West has the doubleton
♥A,
but that would give East five Hearts and he would be unlikely to sell out to 1♠
in that case. So, you hopefully play the
♥K,
taken by West’s Ace. Two more Hearts are won by East’s
♥JT,
then a Club which you win. The ♠A and ♠K are cashed, followed by the ♠J to
East’s Queen (West following). Back comes East’s last trump, and decision time
has arrived!
You’ve already lost five tricks,
and must avoid the loss of two Diamonds if you are to make your contract. A
Diamond to the Jack? Or a Diamond to the King? Do you have your guessing shoes
on?
►
Guess? What guess? Let’s
reflect upon East’s bidding. Oh, that’s right, he didn’t bid. Which is the
whole point of this hand. So far East has shown up with ♣A,
♥QJ,
and ♠Q. That’s 9 HCP. Can East also have the
♦A?
Absolutely not! He passed originally, that
♦A
would give him 13 HCP and too much for said failure to open. So, you lead a
Diamond towards the board, West smoothly plays low, and you rise majestically
with the ♦K.
Making seven tricks thanks to a little bit of counting and deduction.
►
|
|
♠
♥
985
♦
KJ842
♣ 98432 |
|
|
♠ 532
♥
A764
♦
AT3
♣ JT6 |
Dummy
West East
Declarer |
♠ Q764
♥
QJT
♦
Q75
♣ A75 |
|
|
♠ AKJT98
♥
K32
♦
96
♣ KQ |
|
Post Script:
Upon winning the ♥A,
West would have done better to shift fiendishly to a low Diamond, putting
Declarer to the test in that suit before all the clues had been collected!
Back to Index