|
|
North
♠74
♥AJ1092
♦J93
♣742 |
|
West
♠–
♥743
♦AQ10862
♣10863
|
|
East
♠AQJ1082
♥Q86
♦74
♣95
|
|
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South
♠K9653
♥K5
♦K5
♣AKQJ |
|
|
Dealer: West
Vul: North-South |
| W |
N |
E |
S |
| 2♦¹ |
P |
3♠ |
3NT |
| P |
P |
P |
|
| ¹ Weak |
| Opening lead: ♣3 |
|
|
| South has a bunch of heart winners, but insufficient entries to cash them. One thought is to play the five of hearts and finesse the jack, intending to overtake the king with the ace once the queen is out of the way. But a shrewd East will refuse to take the queen. Another idea is to eliminate the clubs and then play king, ace, and another heart, planning to force West to give dummy the lead after taking the ace, queen of diamonds. But an alert West will allow the ♦K to win (either the first or the second round of diamonds) and then there is no entry to dummy.
The key is to discard the ♦K on the third round of hearts (after eliminating clubs). The play goes this way: win the opening lead and cash the rest of the clubs (discarding a spade from dummy). Then play king, ace, and jack of hearts, throwing the ♦K. If West wins the ♥Q, dummy’s ♦J is a sure entry to the two winning hearts, for a total of 9 tricks. If (as in the diagram) East wins the ♥Q, a diamond return forces West to provide the same entry to dummy. If East cashes the ♠A and plays another spade, South can discard a heart from dummy (since the ♠K is now a trick for declarer) and play the ♦5 to force West to put dummy on lead with the ♦J. And, if East underleads the ♠A, South wins the king and plays a diamond, making an overtrick.
Note that if West started with a singleton club, then East has no hearts, and West will have to win the third heart.
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