The Plan II by Tim Bourke (AUS)

0
169
Tim Bourke
Tim Bourke

 example from The IBPA Column Service Jun 2013 by Tim Bourke (AUS.

«Declarer decided to play on spades first because, if nothing eventuated there, he could still fall back on the finesse in hearts.»

 

 10 9 2
 K 9 2
 A 7 3
 A Q 7 4

 

 K 8 7 5 4 3 
 Q 10 3 
 9 5                      
 9 3                

 

 Q 6 
 8 7 6 4 
 10 8 6 4 2 
 6 2 

 

 A J
 A J 5
 K Q J
 K J 10 8 5

 

La Subasta:

 West 

 North 

 East

  South  

 —  —  —

  2NT

 Pass

  6NT

  Pass

 Pass
 Pass      

Contract: 6NT

Lead: 9

As one should, West found a passive lead against South’s six notrump contract, the nine of diamonds.

Declarer counted eleven top tricks and saw that he would need an extra trick from one of the majors. His aim was to combine his chances.

Declarer decided to play on spades first because, if nothing eventuated there, he could still fall back on the finesse in hearts. So, he took the opening lead in dummy with the ace of diamonds and led a low spade towards his hand.

The main chance was that East had begun with both the king and queen of spades, when
two spade tricks would always be there. When East followed with the six of spades at trick two, declarer played the jack of spades from hand.

West took this with the king and exited with a diamond to declarer’s queen. Before tackling hearts, declarer cashed the ace of spades in case either of the defenders had a nowsingleton queen of spades. His luck was in when it was East who produced the errant honour.

If both players had followed with low cards, declarer’s plan was to cash his minor-suit winners before touching hearts.