Source: 24th European Youth Team Championships Bulletins. Click Aqui to read Daily Play Problem Nº 2.
West leads the nine of diamonds. East jumps up with the ace and returns the queen of diamonds. Do you cover with the king or will you simply duck?
Try to find a solution before you continue reading…
Solution:
If you covered the queen of diamonds you can’t make your contract with the unlucky lie of the cards in diamonds. West
ruffs your king and you have to lose at least two more tricks.
The safety play was to play low and allow East to win the queen, if East then continues with diamonds you will cover
the jack or duck the eight, in either case leaving yourself with a fourth-round winner, if the suit was breaking 3-2 you also
make your contract.
It’s true that you sometimes miss one overtrick from playing this way, but we aren’t playing Pairs, are we? We also got another clue, since we bid diamonds it’s very odd that West actually would kick-off with that suit against our contract, so we can be pretty sure it was a singleton.
Las 4 manos eran: