Hand of the Fortnight

Number 24

Themes: 1) "Danger" Cards

2) Trying to protect your partner

In spite of an opening weak 2H bid by North (you) and Spades repeated by West, East has bid 3NT.

South leads HT and Dummy reveals

North

S: Q

H: K J 9 8 3 2

D: 8 6 3 2

C: J 6

West

S: A T 9 8 7 4 3

H: 4

D: A 9

C: Q 5 4

Play: (Note: On Trick 2, it would be more usual to attack Spades here as East had J x)

Trick 1: HT H4 HJ HQ

" 2: CA C2 C4 C6

" 3: CK C7 C5 CJ

" 4: C2 C8 CQ H3

This leaves Declarer in Dummy with

S: A T 9 8 7 4 3

H: -

D: A 9

C: -

Trick 4: S3 SQ S2 (!!) S5

After this slightly unusual play, you now know that partner has the SK.

What do you lead back? You now see that Declarer seems likely to finesse your partner for the SK if possible.

What can you do to try to avoid this? LEAD A DIAMOND!

If this results in Declarer ending in Dummy with DA,

(a) you have removed an ENTRY TO THE SPADE POWERHOUSE and

(b) Declarer is in the wrong hand to try a Spade finesse

1) You have removed the Danger Card (DA) and

2) You have possibly protected partner’s SK

There is another huge advantage of playing the Diamond here. Suppose Declarer does have the DK and uses it to capture the Diamond return (rather than the DA). With the DA being the only card other than Spades in Dummy, there is no way for Declarer to get back to their hand to play other Club or Diamond winners. They are blocked in Dummy with DA + Spades.

Note: This hand arose in Sep. ’07 but positions are changed for convenience. Declarer held the DK and North led back the H9 instead of a Diamond. Admittedly this knocked out the top Heart but now even though partner held off on the subsequent SJ lead, their SK was doomed because there was still the DA as an entry to the Spade run.

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