Prevent a Ruff by Jon Brown

Dealer West E/W Vul.

	6 4  A Q 10 8 7  Q J 9 3  A K
A K Q 8 3  K 9 6 4 3  A 5  9		J 9 7 5 2  J 5  6  8 6 5 3 2
	10  2  K 10 8 7 4 2  Q J 10 7 4

The Auction:

West	North	East	South
1	Double	4	5
End

West led his singleton club, which dummy’s king won. South read the lead as a singleton. Should a trump be led, West would win and underlead his  A K Q and East would gain entry with his knave and give his partner a ruff, thus setting the contract.

South therefore played dummy’s A followed by the Q on which, when East could not cover, he threw his singleton spade.

After this the contract cannot be defeated for as West has the A East cannot obtain the lead in order to give the ruff. This entry killing play of throwing a loser on a loser can be very profitable at times. Its aim is, of course, to keep out of the lead one opponent whose lead value rank higher that that of his partner.

Esta entrada también está disponible en: Spanish