Source: 24th European Youth Team Championships Boletin 1. Click Here to read Daily Play Problem Nº 1.
North had no good choice, but queen-second as trump support will often work when partner overcalls over 1NT (15-17) being vulnerable, and he raised to game. How do you plan your play when West leads the ten of hearts and East covers it with the jack, any ideas?
Try to find a solution before you continue reading…
Solution:
You can be pretty sure that all the keycards are located with East since you only miss 15 HCP. With this knowledge we
therefore can forget about playing a low spade towards dummy´s queen hoping that the king would be with West.
With a club and a hearts loser we can’t afford to lose two tricks in trumps.
A reasonable layout of the hand is what’s suggested above. If that’s the case, we could play the trump suit with only one loser. Win the heart that was led, and run the nine of spades. If West covers you play the queen and finesses East for the jack next time. If West plays low, you finesse and allow East to win with the jack. Later on enter dummy and call for the queen of trumps, East has to cover and you also bring down the ten, solving the suit and making the contract.
The whole hand was:
