The Virgin Islands Daily News – 21 Jun 1980
1. You are declarer with the West hand at Six Notrump and North leads. the jack of diamonds. How would you play the hand?
2. You are declarer with the West hand at Seven Diamonds and North leads the king of hearts. How would you play the hand? (Assume that the trumps are divided 3-1).
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1. You are declarer with the West hand at Six Notrump and North leads. the jack of diamonds. How would you play the hand?
The contract cannot be defeated, regardless of how the missing cards are divided. Win the diamond lead with the king and play the ace of clubs, followed by a low club towards dummy. If the missing clubs are divided 3-2 you have twelve easy tricks, so let’s start by assuming they’re divided 4-1 or 5-0.
If North has four or five clubs to the K-10, he cannot afford to go up with the king at trick three because you’d then have twelve easy tricks. let’s therefore say he follows low on the second club and you win the trick with dummy’s jack of clubs. With South showing out, you now return to your hand with a diamond and lead the jack of spades, planning to finesse if North follows low. This assures you of twelve tricks wherever the queen of spades is located.
If South is the one who has four or five clubs to the K-10, he wins dummy’s jack of clubs with the king, but it is then child’s play to make three club tricks and the contract.
2. You are declarer with the West hand at Seven Diamonds and North leads the king of hearts. How would you play the hand? (Assume that the trumps are divided 3-1).
The best approach to the play is to plan a dummy reversal in order to avoid the danger associated with a spade finesse. Ruff North’s heart lead with the jack, play the five of trumps to dummy’s seven, ruff the six of hearts with the queen, play the eight of trumps to dummy’s nine, then ruff the seven of hearts with the king before playing a low club to dummy’s king. Now ruff the ten of hearts with your last trump, the ace.
Next, play a low spade to dummy’s ace and draw the only missing trump with the ten, discarding your jack of spades in the process. As a result of all these ruffing maneuvers, you win the last four tricks with your kind of spades and A-Q-J of clubs. The thirteen tricks you score consist of two spades, four clubs and seven — count them — trump tricks.