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Bridge with David Bird
How does bridge today compare with bridge 50 years ago? The general consensus if that the top players at that time were comparable with today's so far as their dummy play went. The standard of bidding was nowhere near so good. See if you can match the excellent dummy play of the USA's Norman Kay back in 1964, You have to play 4S on a lead of the nine of clubs. It is essential to cover the nine with dummy's king. Otherwise West can be left on lead for a heart switch. East wins with the ace and continues with the queen of clubs. What is your plan? East's overcall was an intermediate one, so Kay expected him to hold the ace of hearts. His objective was to set up dummy's diamond suit for two heart discards. This had to be done without allowing West on lead for a heart switch. Ducking a diamond, or playing three rounds from the top, would allow West to gain the lead. Kay tried something different. At Trick 2 he discarded a diamond from his hand instead of ruffing. He ruffed the club continuation high and drew trumps in two rounds. He then played the ace and king of diamonds, both defenders following. A diamond ruff established the suit. Kay then re-entered dummy with a trump to the ten to discard two of his three hearts on the established cards in diamonds. It was a clever example of what is known as 'avoidance play' He set up the diamonds while avoiding the dangerous West hand.
When South heard of heart support and two aces opposite, he had every excuse for bidding 7H. He might also have opened 2C instead of 1H, which would surely have resulted in a grand slam. Anyway, West's 3S overcall warns of bad breaks and you will have to play well to make 6H. How would you tackle the slam when West leads the king of spades? You win with dummy's ace of spades and must then ruff a spade in your hand. This may seem a strange move but the cost-nothing elimination of the spade suit opens various possibilities later in the play. When you play the ace of trumps West discards a spade, so the caution in the bidding has been rewarded. How will you continue? You should cash the king of clubs and play the ace and king of diamonds. If East ruffs, he will be end-played (thanks to your spade ruff at Trick 2). A trump return will be run to dummy's ten, after which you can discard two diamond losers on the ace-queen of clubs. A club return will have the same effect. A spade return will give a ruff-and-discard, allowing you to discard a diamond from your hand and ruff in the dummy. If instead East declines to ruff, you will continue with the diamond queen. If this is not ruffed either, you will ruff a diamond in dummy, losing just a trump trick.
North's 2NT is sometimes used to show a 4-card spade raise. On this occasion it was natural and South headed straight for the spade game. West leads the two of hearts to dummy's ace and East then wins the jack of trumps with his ace. What is your plan for the contract when East continues with the king of hearts? If you ruff with an honour, you will need the remaining trumps to break 2-1 rather than 3-0. If instead you ruff with the eight and West overruffs, he can cross to his partner's ace of clubs for another heart to be played. As the cards lie, you will suffer a trump promotion and go one down. So, what should you do at Trick 3, when a second round of hearts is led by East? You should discard your singleton club (a loser-on-loser play). This costs you nothing directly because you are merely swapping a club loser for a heart loser. You gain because you kill East's re-entry. When East continues with another top heart, you ruff with the eight. You are happy for West to overruff because he cannot now cross to the East hand for a further round of hearts. You will lose just one spade, one heart and one overruff.
North's 3H shows at least a sound raise to 3S, a slight overbid but the available alternatives were less accurate. How will you play the spade game when West leads the ace and king of hearts, East showing a doubleton by playing high-low, and West continues with a third heart? Aware that East was almost certainly poised to overruff, the original declarer tried the effect of ruffing with dummy's nine of trumps. East overruffed with the ten and returned a trump. Declarer eventually had to lose a club trick and was one down. What did you make of that? To make the contract declarer needs to discard a club from dummy on the third round of hearts. A further heart will not assist the defence, since declarer is now out of hearts. On any continuation from West, declarer will be able to draw trumps and ruff a club in dummy for his tenth trick. That much is clear-cut at IMPs, rubber bridge or Chicago. The next question is: how should you play the contract at matchpoints, where an overtrick may be worth almost half a top? You will go down after ruffing with the nine when East has both the ten of trumps and the club queen. You will score an overtrick only when West holds both those cards. This is much less likely since West has four more cards in hearts than East does. West has seven vacant places to hold the two key missing cards, compared with East's eleven vacant places. You should therefore play the contract the same way even at matchpoints.
How will you give 6NT the very best chance when West leads the jack of hearts? You have ten top tricks and all will be easy unless clubs break 4-0. You should win the heart lead with dummy's queen and lead a low club towards your hand. When East shows out, you rise with the ace of clubs. You cannot score a large number of club tricks now (unless you concede two tricks to West, going one down). You must aim to score one extra club trick and one extra spade trick. You do this by leading the seven of clubs towards dummy's jack. West cannot rise with the king or you will have five club tricks available. He plays the nine and you win with dummy's jack, bumping your total of top tricks to eleven. You can then return to the king of hearts and run the queen of spades into the safe East hand. This loses to the king but East, as you know, has no club to return. A second spade trick brings your total to twelve, giving you the contract. Suppose East had followed to the first round of clubs. You would then have finessed the queen. If West won with the king, the rest of the suit would be yours. If instead he showed out, you would have an extra club trick in the bag. You could then run the spade queen, again bringing your total to twelve.
You win the jack of hearts lead in your hand and run the queen of clubs. East wins the trick and returns a heart. To make the slam you now need four diamond tricks. You cross to dummy with a spade and must decide whether to lead the jack of diamonds or a low diamond. What do you think? It would be a mistake to lead the jack on the first round. If East held a singleton king, West would subsequently score a trick with his 9-7-5-3. Instead you should lead a low diamond on the first round. If the king appears from East, you will have preserved dummy's jack. You will win with the ace and score three more tricks with the queen, jack and ten. As you cards lie, East plays low and you finesse the ten successfully. You return to dummy in one of the black suits and must now make your second play in diamonds. Should you lead the jack or a low diamond? It is now right to lead the jack. If East covers with the king, you will be happy whether or not West shows out. If he follows, the suit will be breaking 3-2. If he shows out, the way will be clear for a third-round finesse of the eight. See what happens if you mistakenly lead a low diamond on the second round, finessing the queen successfully. East shows out and you are left with J-6 in dummy. East still has the K-9 and you hold A-8. East will then score a trick in the suit!
East's 3H is a pre-emptive raise, showing a fairly weak hand and 4-card trump support. If he held a limit raise of 10-11 points, he would have used a Bergen Raise (3D) instad. How will you play 4S when West leads the ten of clubs? Your first task is to read the lie of the club suit. East clearly holds the king and jack of the suit. Would West lead from a doubleton 10-8 of clubs? It's unlikely. In any case, if clubs are 2-2 the contract will be easy; indeed, you will probably make an overtrick. When you draw trumps, West is marked with the trump ace and cannot clear hearts from his side; you will be able to clear the club suit to set up a heart discard. So, you must assume that the club lead is a singleton. How can you make the contract then? There is only one answer. You must allow the ten of clubs to win the first trick! Let's say that West shifts to the queen of diamonds. You win with the king and play a trump to West's ace. When he tries a second diamond, you win with the ace and draw the remaining trumps. You can then play ace and another club, setting up the suit. East wins the third round and switches to a heart. You rise with the ace and discard the heart queen on the fifth round of clubs. If you make any other play in clubs, East will gain the lead twice in the suit (before you have set up a discard). The defenders will then enjoy a heart trick to put the contract one down.
How will you play 3NT when West leads the five of spades? Let's see first how the original declarer went down. He played the queen of spades from dummy and this lost to the king. All would have been well on a spade return but East decided to try his luck with a heart switch. The queen lost to the king, declarer not thinking much of his luck, and the defenders cleared the hearts. With only seven top tricks at his disposal, declarer now needed to bring in the club suit without loss. There was no reason whatsoever to play East for all four clubs. Declarer continued by playing the ace of clubs and had to surrender the contract when West showed out. What is the safe way to play the contract? Since a heart switch from East could give you a problem, you should rise with the ace of spades at Trick 1. Four club tricks will then give you the contract, provided you can set up the suit without allowing the dangerous (East) hand to win a club trick. You lead a low club from dummy, East following with the six. You must cover this with the eight! If West can beat this card, the remainder of the club suit will be yours. West cannot do any damage from his side of the table, so you will have time to set up a second spade trick too. It will not help East to play the nine on the first round of clubs. You will cover with the jack, cross to a heart and pick up the clubs easily.
East raises to 4S, hoping to make life difficult for South. As it happens, this results in the opponents bidding a slam that they were unlikely to reach otherwise. How would you play 6D when West leads the king of spades? You will need to establish dummy's heart suit, to discard your club loser. After winning with the ace of spades, you should lead the five of diamonds to dummy's king. (You preserve the diamond three to give you an extra entry to dummy later.) Trumps break 2-1 and you draw the last trump with the ace. When you play ace and another heart, West wins the second round with the jack and plays a second spade, which you ruff with the six. You can then cross to dummy by leading the three of diamonds to the four. A heart ruff, West showing out, is followed by a club to the king and a second heart ruff. The thirteenth heart is now good and can be reached with a club to the ace. You discard your club loser on the established heart and the contract is yours. Suppose you carelessly lead the three of trumps to dummy's ace at Trick 2. You will not make the contract!
Can you believe that this deal was used in a radio bridge programme as long ago as 1926? West leads the king of hearts against 3NT. How will you play? You have six top tricks and no chance of developing extra tricks except in clubs. One extra trick from a successful finesse of the club queen will not help you very much. You must aim to bring in the whole club suit. How can this be done without suffering the loss of four hearts and a club? You will need a 3-3 club break with East holding the king. You win the second round of hearts, cross to the jack of diamonds and lead a club. When East plays low, you finesse the queen successfully. Continuing with ace and another club will not be good enough against a competent East. He will ditch the club king under the ace, allowing his partner to win the third round with the jack. You must therefore return to dummy to lead towards the ace of clubs, intending to duck if East plays the king and otherwise play ace and another club to East's king. One trap remains. When you return to dummy by playing the ace and king of diamonds, you must not then cash the diamond queen! If you do, East will have the chance to discard the king of clubs. You abandon the fourth diamond winner and lead towards the club ace, scoring four tricks without allowing West back on lead. You make four clubs, three diamonds and the major-suit aces.
West leads the queen of clubs against 4S. The contract looks comfortable but how can you give it the very best chance? As long as trumps are not 4-0 and the hearts are not 7-1, you can guarantee success. You win the club lead and play the ace of trumps, two spot-cards appearing. Everyone follows to the two top hearts and you ruff a heart in your hand. With hearts eliminated, your next move is to exit in clubs. Suppose East wins this trick. If he is able to return the trump jack, you will cover with your queen, restricting your trump losers to one. If instead he plays a diamond, he will save you the guess in that suit; a club exit will give you a ruff-and-discard. It is no better for the defenders if West wins the club trick. He too cannot safely play a trump. If he exits in either minor, you will not lose a diamond trick. Suppose instead that you try for more tricks by crossing to dummy and finessing the trump queen. West will win with the king and cash the defenders' club trick. He can exit safely in hearts and the chance of a throw-in play will be gone.
How will you play 3NT when West leads the seven of spades, East playing the nine? The original declarer took his eye off the ball. He won with the spade jack and led the king of diamonds. East held up the ace and did the same on the next round of diamonds. Realizing that dummy's diamonds could not be enjoyed, with the spade king entry blocked, declarer switched his attention to the club suit. A 3-3 break might have rescued him but it was not to be; the contract went down. Declarer went wrong as early as Trick 1. Since a 3-1 diamond break might allow the defenders to hold up the ace of diamonds twice, he should have won the first round of spades with the ace. It would then be a simple matter to set up the diamond suit and use the king of spades as an entry to dummy's established winners. Five diamonds, two spades and two clubs would add up to nine. Declarer had no need for three spade tricks. Playing matchpoint pairs, where an overtrick can be worth half a top, there would be some temptation to win the first trick with the jack of spades. At IMPs bridge, rubber bridge or Chicago your first aim must always be to safeguard the contract.
How will you play 3NT when West leads the jack of spades? It would be a poor idea to play dummy's queen on the first trick. East would win and the spades would soon be cleared. You would then need a huge amount of luck to bring home the contract. To make the best use of your own nine of spades, you should put up dummy's ace of spades on the first trick. You then attack diamonds. If East produces the diamond ace, he cannot clear the spade suit without giving you a trick with dummy's queen. You will then be able to cross to a diamond to run the club queen. You will score at least two spades, one heart, three diamonds and three clubs. In fact West will win the diamond trick. Suppose he continues with the seven of spades. You then play low, running the lead to your precious nine. East has to put up the king. He clears the spades and you return to hand to run the queen of clubs to the king. You rise with the ace on East's heart return and can claim nine tricks. If West makes any other return when winning with the diamond ace, you will have an even easier ride.
South's 3H was a single-suited slam try. Although North had 4-3-3-3 shape, he held 17 points including five great honour cards. He therefore advanced to the slam without further ado. How would you play 6H when West leads the jack of clubs to your ace? There are potential finesses in three suits. Your first move should be to take the spade finesse. When you lead the queen of spades, West covers with the king and you win with the ace. You discard a spade on the king of clubs and ruff dummy's last club with the five. Now you can improve on simply taking a trump finesse and subsequent having to guess the diamonds. You play a trump to the ace. This would assist you when East held a singleton king. As it happens, two low cards appear. You ruff dummy's last spade in your hand, completing the elimination of the black suits, and exit with a trump to East's king. He must then open the diamond suit for you or give a ruff-and-discard in clubs. The slam is yours. Suppose that the spade finesse had lost at Trick 2. You would then have taken a trump finesse, hoping to find the king onside. You would discard your potential diamond loser on the king of clubs.
North's raise to 4H suggests a hand with no singleton, otherwise he might have made a splinter-bid (for example 1D – 1H – 4C). A splinter-bid would assist South in judging the slam prospects if he held a strong hand. West leads the two of spades to the jack and queen. How will you play the contract when East returns the jack of diamonds? You win in the dummy and should now play only two rounds of trumps. (If you play a third round, West will win the second round of clubs and return a diamond, leaving you with no convenient entry to the South hand to play the remaining club winners). Next you play the king of clubs. West can do no better than to win with the club ace and persist with the nine of spades. You ruff the third round of spades in your hand and cross to the blocking jack of clubs. You can then return to your hand with a third round of trumps to discard dummy's two diamond losers on the queen-ten of clubs. The contract is yours. You score three rounds of trumps, two ruffs, two diamonds and three clubs. There are several general reasons to delay drawing all the trumps at an early stage. On this particular deal it is because you will need to use the trump suit for entries.
Eric Rodwell and Jeff Meckstroth are famed for bidding and bringing home 3NT contracts on very few points. They were given a taste of their own medicine on this deal from the semi-finals of the USA Bermuda Bowl trials. Meckstroth chose to open a super-heavy 3S, despite being non-vulnerable against vulnerable. Bart Bramley's take-out double was questionable on such a moderate hand and Lew Stansby responded 3NT. They had reached 3NT on a combined total of just 19 points. Declarer ducked the king of spades lead (unwise, perhaps, since a club switch would defeat him) and won the next spade, East throwing a diamond. The jack of hearts was run to the queen and East returned the ten of diamonds to dummy's jack. Declarer cleared the hearts in two more rounds and Rodwell returned his last heart to dummy's eight. Declarer had no entry to his hand, for a diamond finesse, but when he played dummy's ace the king fell from West! He could then cash the queen of diamonds and cross to the nine of diamonds to run the club nine. Whether or not East took the ace at this stage (Trick 11), declarer had two club tricks for a total of nine. Meckstroth and Rodwell had the last laugh, winning the semi-final by a large margin and going on to win the final. Their team will therefore be USA 1 in the next Bermuda Bowl, to be held in India.
How will you play the spade game when West leads the nine of hearts? The contract seems to be straightforward, with the loss of just two trumps and a diamond. If you are not careful, however, you will suffer a heart ruff or a trump promotion. The original declarer won with dummy's king of hearts and called for a trump. East won with the bare ace and returned a second round of hearts. When another trump was played, West won with the king and crossed to East's ace of diamonds for a heart ruff. That was one down. Do you see how to avoid this outcome? At Trick 2 you must lead dummy's king of diamonds. East wins and returns a heart. You win in your hand, with the ace, and play the queen and jack of diamonds, discarding dummy's queen-jack of hearts. You then ruff a heart in the dummy. Yes, that's a bit surprising when you view your original heart holding in both hands! The final move is to lead a low trump from the dummy. (If you mistakenly lead the ten of trumps, you will suffer a trump promotion.) East plays his ace on thin air and a heart continuation will then be ineffective. If West ruffs with the nine, you can overruff with dummy's ten.
On this deal from the US Trials a world-class declarer, Ralph Katz of the winning Nickell team, went down in a contract that he might have made. See if you can outplay him when West leads the queen of spades against 5H. Katz ruffed with the ace and drew trumps with the king and queen. A finesse of the club queen lost to the king and West returned another spade, attacking the trump length in the South hand. Declarer continued with ace and another club, ruffed in the dummy. When the suit did not break 3-3, he was down. He had only one entry remaining to the South hand, so he could not establish and then reach the thirteenth club. Did you do better? You need to play on clubs before drawing a second round of trumps, to save an extra entry to the South hand. West wins with the club king, as before and forces you with a second spade. You can then ruff a club and return to your hand with a second round of trumps. You ruff the last club good and return to your hand with a spade ruff to discard one of dummy's clubs on the long club. On the face of it, this was a surprising card-play error for such an eminent player.
North placed his partner with six hearts when he did not rebid 1NT, raise the spades (on 3-card support) or rebid in a minor suit. How would you play 4H when West leads the queen of clubs? You win with the ace and play the king and ace of spades, aiming to set up the suit. When you ruff a spade with the nine of trumps, West overruffs with the queen. You win the club continuation with dummy's king and lead another round of spades, ruffing with the jack. West overruffs with the king but this is no disaster. The ten of trumps has now been set up as an extra entry to the dummy. Suppose that West switches to a diamond next. You lose two trump tricks and one minor-suit trick, as Nature always intended. The essential part of the play was to set up dummy's spades to dispose of one minor-suit loser. Think back to the bidding. Some Norths would have headed for 3NT. This contract goes down on the lead of any suit from the East hand. Only an absurd lead of the diamond king would allow nine tricks to be made.
The deal is from the final of the USA Trials. Roman Key-card Blackwood told Greco that an ace and the queen of trumps (spades) were missing. He ruled out 6S but bid 6NT, judging that his diamonds might be valuable. (The best contract is 6C. Declarer can ruff a heart and discard two spades on the diamonds.) West led the eight of hearts to the jack and king. When declarer played the king of diamonds, Katz held off the ace. Declarer crossed to the queen of clubs and led the queen of diamonds. Once more Katz declined to take the ace. By refusing to win a trick, he was preventing declarer from rectifying the count (losing a trick to tighten the end position). Had West taken his ace on the first two rounds, a straightforward spade-diamond squeeze would have resulted. Hampson cashed all his clubs, throwing a spade and two diamonds from dummy. He crossed to the ace of hearts, forcing West to reduce to Q-J-6 of spades and the bare diamond ace. Hampson then threw West on lead with a diamond, forcing him to open the spades. When West played the spade queen, declarer guessed correctly to win with the ace and finesse the nine.
How will you play 4H when West leads the queen of diamonds? You are in a 5-3 fit and it may seem that there will be no problem in maintaining trump control with the trumps breaking 3-2. That's not quite the case, since you need to develop tricks in both of the black suits and will be forced in diamonds every time you surrender the lead. You ruff West's queen of diamonds, cross to the jack of trumps and play a club to the jack. West wins with the ace and forces you with a second round of diamonds. You ruff with the ten and overtake the trump queen with the king to reach dummy for a second club lead. You finesse the ten of clubs and West ruffs with the defenders' last trump. All is now well. If West persists with a third round of diamonds, you will ruff with your last trump and lead the spade king. If West wins and exits with another diamond, you can ruff with dummy's four of trumps and discard the spade five from your hand. The remaining tricks are yours. It may seem strange to play clubs twice without drawing the last trump, but this is the only way to retain control on the deal.
How will you play 3NT when West leads the five of spades to dummy's ace? You will have to establish the diamond suit. When you lead a low diamond from dummy, East plays the eight and your king wins the trick. What now? The original declarer crossed to dummy's ace of hearts and led a second round of diamonds. East rose with the ace and declarer followed with the five from his hand. Declarer's assets in diamonds were now blocked and East took advantage of this by switching to the king of clubs. Realizing that he was in trouble, declarer ducked a couple of rounds of clubs. It did him no good because East persisted with the suit, removing the entry to dummy, and the contract could no longer be made. What was declarer's mistake? By using the heart entry for the second diamond lead, he exposed himself to the danger that the defenders could remove the only remaining entry to dummy (the club ace). Instead he should have crossed to the ace of clubs for his second diamond lead. East could win with the ace and cash three club tricks but that would be the end of the defence. If East then switched to a heart, declarer would win in his hand, cash the king of spades and unblock the queen of diamonds. He would then cross to the ace of hearts to enjoy the remainder of the diamond suit.
With every suit stopped twice, a contract of 3NT would have been secure. This was too hard to find and West led the queen of clubs against 4H. What is your plan for this contract? You win with the ace and play a trump to the king and ace. West persists with the jack of clubs and you must be careful at this point. Suppose you attempt to win with dummy's king. East will ruff and you will lose two club tricks subsequently, going one down. Since you can afford to lose two club tricks, but not three, you should play low on the second round of clubs. If West leads yet another club from his remaining 10-8, you will play low from dummy and East will then be ruffing a loser. You will make the contract for the loss of one trump, one club and one club ruff. It's not very likely, but suppose West had played the eight of clubs when he won his trump trick. Again it would cost you the contract if you played dummy's king. By playing low from dummy, running the switch to your nine, you would guarantee the contract. Even if East won with the 10, from an original J-10-6 and gave his partner a club ruff, you would still have ten tricks.
A single-jump response to a take-out double, such as South's 2S here, shows around 8-10 points (a bit more if the response has to be at the three-level). It is non-forcing but lets partner know that you hold a hand in this middle range. When he holds extra values, as North does here, he can move towards a game contract. How will you play 4S when West cashes three top diamonds and switches to the two of clubs? The original declarer thought that West was trying to talk him out of taking the club finesse. 'Play the queen,' he said. The finesse lost and the game went one down. The club finesse was unnecessary. To make the contract declarer needed West to hold the king of hearts. If this was indeed the case, he would have a discard for the losing club from his hand. The situation would be slightly more complicated at matchpoint pairs. If West did hold the king of clubs instead of the king of hearts, it would be a clever move for him to switch to a club at Trick 4. If declarer spurned the club finesse, he would then go two down instead of only one down. At IMPs, rubber bridge or Chicago, the sole objective for declarer is to give the contract the best chance. At those forms of the game it would be a bad error to take the club finesse.
How will you play 4S when West leads the queen of hearts? The first point to note is that there is not one chance in a thousand that West holds the ace of hearts. You should not, therefore, play dummy's king of hearts on the first or the second round. By playing low, you would benefit from the quite likely case that West has led from Q-J-10-x-x and East's ace will fall on the second round. No luck arrives from this quarter. The defenders take three heart tricks and East then exits with a diamond. You now need to pick up the trump suit without loss. What is the best chance? If you play the ace and king, hoping to pick up a doubleton queen, you will make the contract when either defender holds Q-x. This is a total of eight possible combinations. It is better to finesse East for the queen, when you will pick up Q-x (four combinations) and Q-x-x (six combinations) - a total of ten combinations. We have not yet mentioned the case of a singleton queen in either hand. When West holds a singleton queen, you cannot pick up the suit. When East holds a singleton queen, you cannot afford to play dummy's ace on the first round or West will eventually score the 10. So, the best play is to lead a low card from the dummy, intending to finesse. When the cards lie as in the diagram, East's queen will appear. You will win with the king, play the jack next and then finesse dummy's nine.
North's Jacoby 2NT shows at least a sound raise to game in hearts. The 3H response shows no shortage but 16+ points. How would you play 6H when West leads the diamond queen? You win, draw trumps in two rounds and play your remaining cards in the minors. All will be easy if spades break 3-2. By setting up an elimination position, you give yourself a good chance when spades are 4-1. You lead a low spade from dummy, intending to duck the first round of spades. Suppose that East plays the queen. You duck in the South hand, which would leave East end-played if his queen was a singleton. As the cards lie, East's queen will win and he will have to play another spade to avoid giving you a ruff-and-discard. If he leads the seven of spades, you will cover with the nine. If instead he leads an honour, you will win with the ace and subsequently take a marked finesse of the spade nine. If East decides to play the seven of spades on the first round, you might as well cover with the nine. This would win the trick but you would still have to lose the fourth round of the suit. Go back to Trick 1. If West had led his singleton spade, the spade position would have been easy to read. You would win the ten with the king and later end-play East by leading a spade to the nine.
You win the ten of hearts lead in the dummy. You will never reach dummy again (not on this deal, anyway). Which finesse should you take? Look at each finesse in turn and ask yourself: 'If it wins, will I make the contract?' The original declarer made the mistake of finessing the jack of trumps. The finesse succeeded but he didn't make the contract, because East held four spades and still had to make his trump queen. It's an even worse story if declarer decides to take the club finesse. If it won, he would still have to lose a club trick (unless East held a doubleton king). The correct finesse to take is in diamonds. If East holds the diamond ace, you are almost certain to make the contract. Another important question to ask yourself as you compare possible finesse chances is: 'If the finesse loses, what will my fallback chances be?' Suppose you lead a diamond to the king and it loses to West's ace. You will still have a reasonable second chance that the queen of trumps will fall in two rounds. If instead you take a trump finesse and it loses, you will have hardly any chance of avoiding three further losers in the minor suits.
How will you play 4H when West leads the king of diamonds? Looking at the potential losers from the long-trump South hand, you start with one in spades and three in clubs. That's a total of four. How can you reduce it to three? One solid chance is that the ace of clubs will be with East, but you would like to give yourself better odds of success. This can be done by end-playing West with the jack of diamonds later in the play. At Trick 1 you should duck the diamond king. West switches to a spade and you win with the ace. After drawing trumps with the ace and king, you play dummy's ace of diamonds and discard a spade from your hand. You then play the king of spades and ruff a spade, eliminating that suit. Finally, you return to dummy with a third round of trumps and lead the jack of diamonds. Instead of ruffing in your hand, you discard the seven of clubs. West wins the trick (as you knew he would) and must give you a trick. He must either return a diamond, giving a ruff-and-discard on which you will discard a club from your hand, or lead a club from the ace. The technique is known as a loser-on-loser play. You lead the jack of diamonds (a loser) and discard a club (another loser). The benefit comes when West has to surrender a trick with his return.
North's 3S is treated as forcing in the USA. North subsequently used Roman Key-card Blackwood to locate the two A-K combinations and bid the grand slam. How would you play this when West leads a trump? You have eleven top tricks, so two diamond ruffs with the queen and jack of trumps will bring your total to thirteen. Suppose you start by cashing the ace-king of diamonds and ruffing a diamond with the jack, East showing out. If you attempt to reach the South hand by cashing the A-K of one of dummy's side suits and then taking a ruff in that suit, you will go down. West will take the opportunity to discard from his doubleton in the other side suit, subsequently scoring a ruff in that suit. To make the contract you must cash both of dummy's A-K combinations. Only then do you return to hand with a high ruff in one of the side suits. You ruff your last diamond with the queen and can claim the contract, since you have only top trumps left in your hand. In effect, you are following the Golden Rule of playing a cross-ruff: cash the side-suit winners before embarking on the cross-ruff.
How would you play 4S when West leads a trump, East following suit? The original player was a strong performer but he went one down. Let's start by seeing how he played the contract. After drawing trumps, he played the king and ace of clubs. He then led a club towards the jack. This was the best play in clubs, viewing the suit in isolation, but it did not work on this occasion. East covered dummy's card and played another club winner. Declarer ruffed and led a diamond to the queen, losing to the king. The final chance, a finesse of the diamond ten, also failed. Unlucky, yes, but that was one down. The 100% line is to draw trumps, cash the two top clubs and then lead the queen of hearts. The defender who wins cannot touch either minor without giving you a trick. He has to play a second round of hearts. Instead of ruffing, you discard the last club from your hand! If West is on lead at this stage, he has to play a diamond or give you a ruff-and-discard. If instead East is on lead and plays a low club, you will discard one diamond (intending to discard your remaining diamond on the club jack if West wins this third round of clubs with the queen). However the cards lie, you will make the contract.
West leads the jack of diamonds against your heart game. What is your plan? You have no potential losers in the black suits and one trump loser. So, all will be well unless you happen to lose three diamond tricks. West is unlikely to have led from the K-J-10 of diamonds. Even if he has, there is little to be gained by playing dummy's queen of diamonds on the first trick. If West has a sequence of diamonds headed by the jack, East's king will fall on the first or second round. You play low from dummy, therefore, and the king appears from East what now? The original declarer gave himself a self-congratulatory nod for not playing dummy's queen of diamonds and won the trick with the ace. When he played a trump, West won with the ace and led the ten of diamonds though dummy's Q-5-3. The contract could no longer be made! Whenever declarer committed dummy's queen of diamonds it would be ruffed away. Declarer would, in effect, lose three diamond tricks. To make the contract, you need to make two good plays on the first trick. You must play low from dummy and then allow East's king of diamonds to win. Suppose East switches to a club. You win and play a trump to the ace. When West persists with a diamond, you play low in dummy. If East ruffs, he will be ruffing a loser. You will make the contract.
West leads the jack of diamonds against your heart game. It's unlikely that you can avoid a club loser, so you will have to hope that you lose only two trump tricks. You win the diamond lead with dummy's king and lead a low heart to the nine, queen and ace. West persists with another diamond and you win in hand with the ace. What will your next play be in trumps — to lead the jack (hoping that East started with 10-9) or to lead a low card (hoping that he started with K-9)? Even in these learned days, you will find thousands of bridge players who think that this is a 50-50 guess. Wrong! Think of it this way. Suppose your intended play in trumps is to lead low to the queen and to continue with a low trump on the second round if East follows with the nine on the first round. You will make the contract when East started with A-9 or K-9 and go down only when he started with 10-9. That's odds of 2-to-1 in your favour. The same is true if East follows with the 10 on the first round. Leading a low trump on the second round will succeed against A-10 or K-10 with East and lose only to J-10. It is an example of the famous Principle of Restricted Choice. Those who stubbornly remain RC-doubters will go through their bridge life with the odds stacked 2-to-1 against them!
West leads the four hearts against your contract of 3NT. There are possible finesses in all four suits. If you take them all and every one works, you will make 13 tricks! Still, the question I have for you is: how can you guarantee making your lowly contract of 3NT when all the finesses are destined to lose? You should not commit the jack of hearts at Trick 1. Play low and win East's nine (correct play) with the king. Next you should run the nine of clubs into the East hand. East wins and cannot profitably continue hearts (because you wisely left the jack of hearts in dummy). Instead he exits with the eight of diamonds. Again you must not finesse on this trick; otherwise West may win the queen with the king and clear the diamonds before you have set up the extra spade tricks that you need. You rise with the diamond ace, cross to dummy with a club and run the nine of spades into the (safe) West hand. After these careful moves, you have accumulated three tricks in each black suit and three top winners in the red suits. That brings the total to nine and with any luck you may hear those wonderful words: 'Well played, partner!'
You pick up a sprightly 21-count and are surprised to hear East open with a strong 1NT. How will you play 4S when West leads a trump to East's ace and a trump is returned? The nine of trumps is an entry to dummy, but it is unclear what benefit you can draw from it. If you lead a third round of trumps to the nine and take a successful heart finesse, you will have no trump left to ruff the third round of hearts. You start by cashing the ace and king of clubs. When the queen falls from West, you know that East must hold the two top diamonds and the king of hearts. You lead the queen of diamonds, throwing East on lead. If he plays either red suit now, he will be giving up. If he cashes his other top diamond, for example, you will win the next diamond with the jack, finesse the queen of hearts and take a heart ruff. So, East has to exit with the jack of clubs. If you ruff this, you will go down. Instead, you must discard your last diamond. It is the end of the road for East. If he plays another club, you will ruff high and cross to the nine of trumps to discard a heart on the thirteenth club. When East reluctantly exits with a heart, you finesse the queen successfully, cash the ace of hearts and ruff a heart in dummy. The contract is yours.
How will you play 4S when West leads the queen of hearts, won with dummy's ace? You have four potential losers: one in spades, two in diamonds (you can always ruff the fourth round) and one in clubs. Your first move is to run the queen of trumps. This loses to the king and West returns his remaining trump. You now need to lose only one diamond trick. Looking at that suit in isolation, you would need to find East with both the missing honours, or to guess which defender held a doubleton honour. If East held Q-x, for example, you could finesse the 10 and then play the ace to drop the queen. If West held Q-x, you would need to lead towards the jack, succeeding whether West rose with his honour or not. However, that is not the end of the matter. The club suit gives you an extra chance! After winning the second round of trumps in dummy, you should lead a club to the nine. West wins the ace and persists with another heart, which you ruff. The queen-jack of clubs are now worth a trick. You run the queen of clubs, discarding a diamond from dummy. When you win East's return, you can discard dummy's last diamond on the established jack of clubs. You lose just two clubs and a spade.
How will you plan the play in 4S when West leads the jack of clubs? You win with the ace in dummy and pause to make a plan. Looking at the losers in the South (long-trump) hand, you have two in spades, two in hearts and one in diamonds. That's a total of five. You can discard one loser on dummy's second club winner, so all depends on losing just one trump trick. What should you do at Trick 2? That's an easy one! Since you have no entry to dummy remaining, you must take the opportunity to discard a heart on the king of clubs. Now you have to decide how to play the trump suit. Any ideas? If trumps break 2-2, it is a 50-50 bet whether East will hold A-x or Q-x. So far, it is a complete guess whether you should play the jack or the king of trumps from your hand. However, what if West holds only one trump? If he has a singleton ace of trumps, there is no way to make the contract. If instead he holds a singleton queen, you can succeed by rising with the king on the first round. This swings the odds in favour of that play. You try a spade to the king and… the queen falls from West. Justice is done! (If East holds A-Q-x of trumps, he will rise with the ace and the contract goes down anyway.)
How will you plan the play in 3NT when West leads the six of spades to East's king? You should duck the first round of spades. East continues with the spade jack and you win with the ace. You have four top winners outside clubs, so a full complement of five club tricks will give you the game. If clubs break 2-2, you can play the ace and king, return to the nine and re-enter dummy with the queen on the fourth round. You will then be able to claim a fifth club trick and the contract. It is more likely that clubs will break 3-1. In that case you will need to play the three top honours on the first three rounds. The remaining spot-card in your hand will then be the top card and will block the suit. How can you deal with that case? The answer is easy, once you spot it! When you play the ace and king of clubs, East discards a low heart on the second round. You then play… a spade! You discard a blocking club spot-card from your hand as a surprised West wins the trick. He is welcome to cash two more spades. When you regain the lead, the remainder of the club suit will cash easily and nine tricks are yours.
North could have made a check-back bid over 1NT to seek a 5-3 fit in hearts. He decided that it was not worth it with his chunky values outside clubs. How would you play the contract of 3NT when West leads the five of spades? Let's see first how the original declarer went down. At Trick 1 he played a low card from dummy, disappointed to see East with the king. East then switched to a club, realizing that his side would need some tricks from that source. West won declarer's ten of clubs with the king and continued with the club nine to South's jack. When declarer played on hearts, East won with the ace and sent a third round of clubs through declarer's remaining Q-4. That gave the defenders three club tricks to go with a spade and a heart. The notrump game was one down. 'I was incredibly unlucky to lose three club tricks,' muttered the declarer. Yes, but he could have avoided any such risk. To make the contract you must (can you believe it?) make a plan before playing the first card from dummy. All that is needed it to rise with dummy's ace of spades and then clear the heart suit. This will give you four hearts, four diamonds and the ace of spades. The defenders, meanwhile, can claim just two clubs, a spade and a heart.
How will you play 3NT when West leads the two of diamonds to East's ten? The opponents are playing fourth-best leads, so the lead of a 2 suggests that the suit is breaking 4-3. In that case you can afford to win the first round of diamonds. (If you duck, a switch to the six of hearts would defeat you!). You have seven top tricks and your plan is to add two more from the spade suit. When you lead the jack of spades, the defenders attempt to thwart you by allowing this card to win. You must now make full use of the dummy entries that the club suit provides. You play the ace of clubs and then lead the nine of clubs to dummy's jack, all following. You play dummy's queen of spades and the defenders cannot beat you. Suppose East wins the second round of spades and returns a diamond. You win and lead the queen of clubs to dummy's king (a second unblock in the suit). You can then clear your spade trick. When you win West's return, you lead the three of clubs to dummy's five, a third entry in the suit, and score the nine of spades to make the game. You will succeed also if it is West who wins the second round of spades. He may well abandon diamonds and switch to the ten of hearts. You win with the ace and again lead the club queen to the king. East wins the next spade and cannot continue hearts effectively from his side of the table. Nine tricks are yours.
How will you play 6S when West leads the jack of hearts? You need to vary your discard on the second top heart, depending on how the trumps lie. After winning the heart lead, you play a trump to the ace. On the layout shown, West shows out on the first round and East is left with the trump king. Now you need to ensure that East will have to give you a trick when he wins his trump trick. You cross to the ace of diamonds and discard a diamond from dummy on the second heart winner. When you play a trump to the king, East had to return a club into the tenace, a diamond to trap his partner's king, or a heart to give you a ruff-and-discard. Suppose that East had shown out on the ace of trumps, leaving West with the king. You would then have discarded a club on the remaining heart winner. This would allow you to cash the ace and king of clubs and ruff the third round, eliminating the suit. Finally, you would exit with a trump to West. Whichever of the three side suits he chooses to return, he will have to give you a trick. Again, you will make the slam. If trumps break 1-1 you are home and dry; you can take the diamond finesse for an overtrick.
West leads the four of hearts against 3NT. East wins with the ace and returns the queen, winning the second trick. You fear the worst but… that's good… East now switches to the queen of spades. Hearts must be 6-2, with the suit blocked. How will you take advantage of this piece of good fortune? You have eight tricks on top and a 3-2 break in either minor suit will allow you an easy ninth trick. Since your middle cards are better in diamonds, it is natural to test the club suit first. After winning the spade switch, you play the king and queen of clubs, East discarding a spade on the second round. When you cash your remaining spade honour, all following, you have a complete count on the deal. West is 2-6-1-4. He has only one diamond and you will be able to pick up the suit! You cross to the queen of diamonds, drawing two low spot-cards. You then lead the three of diamonds, finessing the eight when East follows with the seven. Four diamond tricks are yours, along with the contract. It would do East no good to split his J-9 of diamonds. You would win with the king and return to dummy with the club ace to finesse the 8 in your remaining A-8 of diamonds. Counting the hand is one of the most important skills for declarer. You can read all about it in 'Countdown to Winning Bridge', by Tim Bourke and Marc Smith, available from Amazon.
How would you play 7NT when West leads the jack of diamonds? The declarer at one table of a team-of-four match took a few seconds to admire his excellent contract. Had the partnership arrived in 7S or 7C instead, they might have gone down if the chosen trump suit broke 5-0. Playing in 7NT, he would be able to survive an adverse break in one suit, provided he could bring in the other suit. After winning the diamond lead in his hand, declarer played the ace of spades. He was not too disheartened when West showed out because the declarer at the other table of this match might have mistakenly chosen to play in 7S. He continued with three more winners in spades and the top cards in the red suits. West had no problems whatsoever in keeping a club guard, however, The grand slam went one down when the club suit also broke badly. What did you make of that? Perhaps you spotted that declarer had misplayed the spade suit. Since he could pick up a 5-0 break only if East held the long spades, he should have led to the jack on the first round. When West showed out, it would have been an easy matter to finesse twice against East's 10-9, scoring five spade tricks and the contract.
Here is another Golden Oldie. It was played by the USA star, Johnny Crawford, in a 1975 Monte Carlo tournament a few months before his death. In the system being played, 2H by Al Roth (North) would have been forcing. His jump preference to 3H was a slam try. After two cue-bids, South made a Josephine grand slam try. 5NT asked partner to bid 7H if he held two of the three top trump honours. How would you play the grand slam when the queen of clubs is led? Crawford discarded his spade losers on dummy's club honours, cashed the king and ace of diamonds and ruffed a diamond with the king. He reached his hand with a club ruff and ruffed his last diamond with the ace. He could then lead the five of trumps to his hand, draw trumps and claim the contract. It was an easy enough contract to play, provided you take the trouble to make a plan at the start. In truth, it was rather more difficult to bid the grand slam than to make it!
You reach 4S and West leads the king of clubs. You win in your hand and immediately play a diamond. The king loses to East's ace and he returns the three of trumps. What is your plan for the play? One round of trumps and a winner in each of the side suits will bring your total to four tricks. You will then need to score the remaining six trumps separately on a cross-ruff. If you run this trump return to dummy, you will go down! Your intention is to ruff three clubs in dummy and two diamonds in your hand. You must therefore win this trump trick in your hand, with the nine (say). You ruff a club with dummy's ten and cash the ace of hearts and the diamond queen. After a diamond ruff with the two, you can claim the contract on a high cross-ruff. You will ruff a club with the queen, a diamond with the jack and a club with the ace. You will then have nine tricks before you and the king of trumps to make it ten. As it happens, West could have beaten the contract by leading his singleton trump. Some players would nod learnedly and mutter: 'It would have gone down on the obvious trump lead.' There's nothing very obvious about it on this deal and I would have led a club too.
How will you play 3NT when West leads the queen of hearts? You win in your hand to preserve the heart ace as an entry to the dummy. You have seven top tricks and it is natural to head for the club suit to seek the two extra tricks that you need. How should you play the clubs? You start with the ace and two spot-cards appear. Next you should lead a low card towards dummy's jack. If West began with Q-10-x-x, he will now make only one club trick. When the cards lie as in the diagram, West will show out on the second round and East will capture the jack with the queen. You win the heart continuation in dummy and proceed with the marked finesse of the nine of clubs. The king brings down East's last club and four club tricks are yours, for the contract. In a duplicate pairs, some declarers might be tempted to lay down the ace and king of clubs; if the queen falls doubleton, you would have five club tricks and an overtrick. The chances of finding a Q6/Q7/Q8 (on either side) are equivalent to those of finding a singleton 6/7/8 on either side, so there would be no real reason for putting the contract at risk in a pairs event.
The deal arose in a Hampshire Knock-out match. How would you have played 4S when West leads the six of diamonds to East's queen and a trump is returned? The 3D overcall was described as 'weak' on East's convention card, although it would not be particularly weak since E/W were vulnerable against non-vulnerable. The first declarer won the trump switch in his hand and took one diamond ruff. He then cashed the bare king of trumps, followed by the top heart honours. Reaching his hand with a heart ruff, he drew the last trump. Confident from the bidding that West would hold the king of clubs, declarer then finessed the club queen. Not today! The finesse lost and East cashed a diamond trick. There was no way to avoid a further club loser and he went one down. A better idea is to ignore the club queen and play for seven trump tricks. The other declarer won the trump switch with dummy's queen and cashed the A-K of hearts. He then ruffed a heart low in his hand, East throwing a diamond. When declarer ruffed a diamond in dummy and led a fourth round of hearts, East ruffed and declarer overruffed. A further diamond ruff in dummy was followed by the ace of clubs. This brought declarer's trick count to eight and he still held the A-K of trumps in his hand. Game made!
It was gung-ho bidding by South but there was nothing wrong with the final contract. West leads the queen of hearts, which you win with the ace. When you play the king and ace of trumps, East discards a heart on the second round. How will you continue? You need to set up the diamond suit for the loss of just one trick. All will be easy if diamonds break 3-2. Should you play the king first or the ace? West holds the outstanding trump and you must take steps to avoid him ruffing a diamond honour. You begin with the diamond ace and lead a second round of diamonds through West. If he ruffs with his last trump, he will be ruffing a loser. You will score dummy's diamond king later and have a spare trump in dummy to deal with the fourth round of diamonds. Suppose instead that West chooses not to ruff. Dummy's king will win and you can surrender a third round of diamonds to East. He has no trump to return, so you will be able to ruff the fourth round of diamonds with dummy's jack of trumps. It is a classic example of avoidance play. By leading through the dangerous West hand at the key moment, you prevent him from doing any damage with his last trump. If instead East had turned up with three trumps, you would have played the king first and then led towards the ace.
North made a Support Double on the second round to show that he had 3-card spade support. How would you play 4S when West cashes two top diamonds and switches to the eight of hearts? You duck the first round of hearts. East wins with the jack and returns the king of hearts to remove dummy's ace. When you play the ace and king of trumps, East discards a diamond on the second round. If the club suit is 3-3, you can establish it with a ruff and use the queen of trumps as an entry to reach the good clubs. Declarer decided to play West for only two clubs, particularly as he might hold six diamonds. He played a trump to the queen, drawing West's last trump and returned to his hand with the king of clubs. He then ran his remaining trumps. On the last trump, East had to find a discard from the Q-9 of hearts and the Q-10 of clubs. If he threw a club, dummy's A-J in the suit would be worth two tricks. If instead he threw the nine of hearts, he would be thrown in with a heart to lead into dummy's club tenace. Throwing the queen of hearts was no good, of course, because declarer held the heart ten. The contract was duly made. It is no good for West to switch to a heart at Trick 2; East will still get caught when the trumps are run. The only way to beat the game is a double-dummy lead of a heart at Trick 1!
South has plenty in reserve for his 1H response and is easily justified in raising to 6H. How would you play this contract when West leads the queen of diamonds? Look at the possible losers from the long-trump (South) hand. The only side-suit loser is the third diamond and you can ruff that in the dummy. To make the slam you therefore need to avoid two trump losers. This will be easy if trumps break no worse than 3-1. How can you play the suit safely to guard against a 4-1 break either way round? You win the diamond lead with the king and play a trump to the ace, East showing out. After this start, you are still alive. You lead another trump towards dummy's K-9-6. If West plays the 8, you will finesse the 9. You can then cash the king and ruff your diamond loser, eventually conceding a trump trick to West. It is more likely that West will insert the ten of trumps. You win with the king and play dummy's two top spade honours. You then return to the diamond ace and ruff your diamond loser with dummy's six of trumps. Finally, you then lead the bare trump nine to force out West's queen. When you regain the lead, you will reach the South hand with a club ruff and draw West's last trump with your jack. The slam will be yours.
How will you play 3NT when West leads the two of spades? You have seven tricks on top and must seek two more to bring the total to nine. The best chance lies in diamonds, but it is not obvious which line you should follow in that suit. One possibility is to start by cashing the ace and king. You will succeed when an honour falls singleton or doubleton, also when the suit breaks 3-3 (a third round will then set up two extra winners). You will lose out when either defender holds four or more cards including the queen and jack. Of course, there is no winning line when East has such a holding, so the main loss is when West holds queen-jack to four or more cards. A rival line is to take two finesses in the suit. This will pick up QJxx with West (six combinations), QJxxx (four combinations) and QJxxxx (one combination); it will lose out to QJ doubleton (1 combination) or QJx with East (four combinations). It is not possible to compute such matters accurately because West might well have led a diamond if he held five or six diamonds headed by the queen-jack. However, even if you discount these cases, the best play in the suit is indeed to take two finesses. Only a high-flying expert would already know the best play on a large number of suit combinations. The rest of us just have to count the number of opponents' holdings that each line will pick up.
How will you play 4H when West launches the defence with ace and another diamond? A quick glance at the North-South cards suggests only three potential losers – one spade, one heart and one diamond. However, the opening lead strongly suggests that West began with a doubleton ace of diamonds. In that case you are in danger of losing a diamond ruff as well if East holds the ace of trumps as an entry. What can you do to survive that scenario? It's possible if West's distribution is either 7-2-2-2 or 6-2-2-3. Before playing a trump, you cash dummy's two clubs and ruff a club with the queen. West cannot damage you if he holds the ace of trumps and overruffs with that card. As it happens, he follows to three rounds of clubs. With this preparatory work performed, you play a trump to the king. East wins with the ace of trumps and does indeed give his partner a diamond ruff. However, West now has nothing but spades in his hand! He has to lead a spade into your ace-queen and the game is made. You lose the two red aces and a ruff, but not a spade trick.
If South had followed his take-out double with a rebid of 1NT, this would have suggested 18-19 points (the next range up from the 15-17 that they played for an immediate 1NT overcall.) With his clubs well-placed over the opener, South judged that he was worth a 2NT rebid. How would you play the resultant 3NT contract when West leads the three of spades to your king? If you are allowed to make four diamonds, you will have to take only one successful club finesse to bump the total to nine. If instead East is able to hold up the ace of diamonds twice, you will score only two diamond tricks. What can be done in that case? You must use two diamond entries to dummy to develop your club suit. At Trick 2, you cross to the king of diamonds, East holding up the ace. Taking advantage of this entry to the table, you finesse the club queen successfully. When you play the nine of diamonds to the ten, East sees his partner's high-low. Knowing that West has two diamonds, and declarer therefore three, he has to hold up the diamond ace once again. You finesse the jack of clubs, cash the ace and concede a fourth round of clubs. The game is yours. You win the spade return and claim a total of nine tricks: four clubs, two diamonds and three top cards in the majors.
South placed his partner with heart shortage after the strong East-West bidding in that suit. He used Blackwood to check that partner held one ace and then bid 6S. How would you play this contract when West leads the ten of hearts? You ruff in the dummy and lead the seven of trumps to your ten, as East shows out. The bad break in trumps, threatens your ability to establish the clubs and then draw trumps, ending in the dummy to enjoy the long cards. You will now need the club suit to split 3-2. You play the ace and king of clubs, throwing a heart, and ruff a club with the king. You return to dummy with a trump and then lead a good club, discarding your last heart. West ruffs, yes, but this is fine for you since it reduces him to the same number of trumps that are left in the dummy. A further round of hearts will do you no harm because you can ruff it in the South hand. On any return from West you will be able to 'draw trumps, ending in the dummy' and enjoy the remaining club winners. This will allow you to ditch the prospective diamond losers in the South hand and claim the contract.
North passed on the first round of bidding. An immediate double from him would have been for take-out, a negative double. The only hope of collecting a penalty against 1S was that his partner would re-open with a take-out double, which he could pass. When South rebid 4H, North judged that he was strong enough to raise to 6H. How would you play this contract when West leads the king of spades? It may look as if you need to find West with the king of diamonds but there is an extra chance. You win the spade lead with the ace, pleased to see East follow suit, and set about establishing the spades. At Trick 2, you ruff a spade with the seven. You now need four more entries to dummy, three to take further spade ruffs and one to reach the thirteenth spade. The best chance of this is to find the ten of trumps singleton in either hand. You continue with the nine of trumps, covered by the ten (yes!) and dummy's jack. A spade ruffed with the eight is followed by the two of trumps to dummy's six and a third spade ruff. A club to the ace allows you to establish the spade suit with a fourth ruff and you return to dummy with a club ruff to discard a diamond on the long spade. After so much hard work, it would be annoying to find that West held the diamond king anyway. No, East has that card, so your clever manoeuvres were necessary to make the slam.
North sees little value in Stayman, with 3-4-3-3 shape and four low cards in the major. He expects there to be good play for 3NT with his 12 points added to South's 15-17 points. West leads the queen of hearts, East producing the king. How will you give yourself the best chance in 3NT? Since no switch from East can do any damage, you should duck the first trick. East switches to the jack of clubs and you win with the king. When you play the ace of hearts, East discards a diamond. You have eight top tricks and could play diamonds yourself now (finessing the 9 first and then the queen). A better chance is available. You cash all your winners in spades and clubs, leaving East with at most two winners in those suits. Then you play a diamond to the nine. East duly cashes a spade and a club. He must then lead a diamond into dummy's ace-queen tenace and you have your ninth trick. Once both defenders have followed to two rounds of each black suit, this line of play has around a 75% chance of success. The alternative line of relying on double finesse in diamonds is only a 63% shot.
The deal comes from a teams-of-four match. At both tables 4S was reached after West had overcalled in hearts. How would you have played the contract when West begins the defence with three top hearts, East throwing a club on the third round? The first declarer ruffed the third heart and saw that he might make the contract with five trumps, four clubs and one diamond. Attempting to score a diamond trick straight away, he led a low diamond towards dummy. It was clear to West that declarer did not have two top diamond losers (in addition to two top hearts). He therefore rose with the diamond ace and forced declarer again with the jack of hearts. East discarded another club and it was no longer possible to make the contract! East had more trumps than declarer. Five trumps, three diamonds and one club added up to nine, not ten. At the other table, declarer played the ace and queen of clubs before leading a low diamond towards dummy. Now there was no defence. If West rose with the diamond ace and played the jack of hearts, East could do no damage. Declarer would be able to score one diamond and cross-ruff the remaining tricks - ruffing diamonds in dummy and clubs in his hand. He would score two clubs and one diamond, five trumps in his hand and two diamond ruffs in dummy.
In the system being played, 2S was a transfer showing clubs and 3S then implied 4-6 shape in the black suits. How would you play 3NT when West leads the queen of hearts to dummy's ace? Suppose you start with the king and ace of clubs, finding that the clubs are 4-1. You will go down! A 3-2 club break was a chance to make the contract, yes, but it was not the only chance. You start with eight top tricks and need only one more to give you the game. Since a 3-3 spade break would give you the extra trick that you need, you should duck a spade at Trick 2. The defenders clear the hearts and you play the ace and king of spades, discovering that the suit breaks 3-3. Only then do you play the king and ace of clubs. The clubs do not oblige but you are in dummy and can cash the established eight of spades. The game is yours. Two strands of thought are necessary to make this contract. You must notice the second chance that the spade suit offers you. It is also necessary to play the suits in the correct order to benefit from both chances. The club king may be needed as an entry to the thirteenth spade.
North's 2H shows a sound raise in spades to (at least) the two level. West led ace and another heart. East won the second heart with the king and returned the jack of hearts, which West ruffed with the eight. How would you play the contract? Let's see first how the original declarer went down. He overruffed with dummy's ten of trumps and finessed the jack of trumps. When West showed out on this trick, declarer had a trump loser to East's remaining K-9. He therefore needed to avoid a diamond loser. If East's shape had been 3-6-2-2, West would have held the sole guard in both minor suits. After giving East his trump trick, declarer could have run the remaining trumps to squeeze West in the minor suits. (He would have had to throw either the diamond guard or the club guard.) As it was, West knew that he had to keep the clubs guarded and East could guard the diamonds. One down! How should the contract be played? Declarer should have discarded a diamond from dummy when West ruffed the third heart. He could then win the club shift in dummy and (with the Q-10 intact), pick up East's king of trumps with a finesse. West did well to ruff his partner's heart winner to promote a trump trick for the defenders. The winning counter for declarer was to discard a loser on that trick.
West leads the jack of hearts against 3NT. How will you plan the play? You have seven tricks on top. Where can you find two more tricks? The answer does not lie in the club suit; the defenders will have scored three hearts and the club ace-king before you can enjoy any extra club tricks. Instead you must hope to score four diamond tricks. This will be easy if diamonds divide 3-2, of course. You must see if you can cope with any of the possible 4-1 breaks. Think about it for a short while and you will see that the only possibility is to find East with a singleton 8 or 9. You should win the heart lead with the ace and lead the ten of diamonds, aiming to pin the 8 or 9 in the East hand. If West declines to cover, your 10 will win the trick. You can then play ace, king and another diamond, using the king of hearts as a subsequent entry to the thirteenth diamond. What if West does cover with the queen or jack? You win with dummy's ace and continue with a low diamond to the 7. If West wins, you will be able to finesse with dummy's K-6, sitting over his Q-5. If instead West allows the 7 to win, you will continue with king and another diamond. It may seem a small extra chance (in fact it is 6%) but looking for such edges is the hallmark of an expert player.
This deal was played in 1974 by Dr John Fisher of Dallas, one of the best of the second-level experts in the USA for several decades after the second world war. How would you have tackled 6D when West leads the king of clubs? You need to ruff two spades in dummy but you cannot concede a spade until you have discarded the two exposed club losers. After winning with the ace of clubs, Fisher cashed the ace and king of hearts, throwing a club, and ruffed a heart with the ten. Now came the clever bit. Needing to enter dummy on the first and second round of trumps, his next move was to lead the seven of trumps and finesse the nine! This hair-raising move succeeded and he then ruffed a heart with the ace. A trump to the queen drew the opposing trumps and Fisher then discarded his remaining club on the thirteenth heart. He could then surrender a spade trick, win the return and ruff two spades in dummy to bring his total to twelve tricks. Many of these claimed deals by a 'name' player were dismissed by the great Terence Reese with an "If you believe that, you'll believe anything!" This one, though, seems more believable than many. There was really no other sensible line to try.
If South had opened just 3D, North might have tried 3NT. This would go one down on a spade lead – not so bad when East-West can make 4S. Worried about a major-suit contract for his opponents, South decided to open 4D and was raised to game. How would you play this contract when West leads the two of trumps and East discards a heart? You must make plans for your fourth club. All will be well if the clubs break 3-3. Otherwise you may be able to ruff the fourth round of clubs in dummy. A possible problem arises when West holds four clubs and can win the second and third rounds of the suit, returning a trump on each occasion. How can you survive that scenario? Rather amazingly, in a 7-3 fit, you must aim for a dummy reversal! You win the trump lead with the nine and ruff a spade. A heart to the ace is followed by a spade ruff, a heart to the king and a third spade ruff with the eight. A club to the ace allows you to ruff dummy's last spade, yes, but this ruff must be taken with the king. You can then lead the ten of trumps to the jack and ruff dummy's last heart with the ace. Ten tricks are before you and dummy's queen of trumps will make it eleven. After all this hard work, it would be tedious indeed to find that the clubs lay in a friendly fashion. No, West did have two entries in clubs and you would have been defeated if you had played any other way.
How would you plan this 3NT contract when West leads the queen of hearts? The thoughts of the original declarer ran like this: 'After winning the heart lead, I will play a club to the king. The defenders will have to hold up twice in clubs to prevent me from enjoying dummy's suit. When the king wins, I will return to the ace of spades and lead another club to the queen. If this is ducked too (West cannot afford to rise from A-10-x-x), I will switch my attention to diamonds. Even if the diamond finesse loses, I will score three diamonds and two tricks in each of the other suits. That's a total of nine!' Do you see what went wrong with this wonderful plan? At Trick 2 declarer led the six of clubs to the king and East won with the ace. Declarer won the heart return, which cleared the suit, and led the eight of clubs to dummy's queen. East showed out and declarer had no way to score four club tricks. His remaining nine of clubs blocked the path for a third-round finesse of dummy's seven. A good player would automatically lead the nine of clubs to the king on the first round. East wins and clears the hearts, as before, but now declarer leads the eight of clubs to the queen. The 4-1 club break comes to light but now it represents no problem. Declarer can return to hand with a spade honour and lead the six of clubs for a finesse of the seven. Four club tricks result and the game is made.
With a full 19 points opposite a 15-17 point 1NT, North rightly gives no thought to a possible 4-4 spade fit. He expects there to be good play for 6NT. How would you tackle 6NT when West leads the queen of diamonds? You have eleven tricks on top and the best chance of a twelfth trick is an extra trick from the spade suit. You win the diamond lead with the king and play four rounds of clubs, ending in the South hand. The defenders will have some difficulty with their discards, but let's say that they manage to retain all their spades. Your next move is to run the nine of spades. If this loses to the ten, you plan to finesse the jack of spades on the next round. As it happens, the nine of spades forces the queen from East, so you have the extra spade trick that you needed. If West had covered the spade nine with the ten, you would finesse dummy's jack – certain of an extra trick whether East won with the queen or not. If he did, your spade eight would be established. As you see, it is essential to make some use of your 9-8 of spades. If instead you lead the nine or eight to dummy's jack on the first round, you will go down.
Planning a line of play often involves ensuring that you have enough entries to the weaker hand. This is one such deal. How would you play 3NT when West leads the four of hearts, East playing the eight over dummy's six? You plan to play on diamonds first, hoping for four tricks there to be followed by three spade tricks. You will cross to the ace of diamonds next, yes, but you must lead specifically the eight of diamonds to the ace. By keeping the five, you plan to create an extra entry to dummy's seven of diamonds later. A finesse of the diamond jack succeeds on the second round and you cash the diamond king. You then lead the five of diamonds to the seven, as planned. A finesse of the ten of spades loses to the queen and West clears the hearts. In dummy with the heart ace, you lead the jack of spades, planning to run the card. Whether or not East covers, you will score three spade tricks and make the contract. Go back to the first round of spades. If West allows the ten to win, you can simply play the king of clubs, establishing your ninth trick in that suit.
A 2H rebid by North would be forcing and natural (a reverse), so 3H is available as a mini-splinter, agreeing spades and showing at most one heart. How will you play 4S when West leads the queen of clubs? You win with the ace and draw one round of trumps with the ace. Unless trumps break 2-2, you will need to establish dummy's diamonds. You continue with the ace and king of diamonds, followed by a third round of the suit. East follows and you must consider your next move carefully. Suppose you ruff and West overruffs. You will then go down if he returns either remaining side suit. (Imagine you were West for a moment. It would perhaps be tempting to return the trump queen, but this would allow declarer to score two heart ruffs, four trumps, three diamonds and a club.) Instead you need to discard your club loser on the third round of diamonds. The defenders cannot beat the contract after this smart move. Suppose, for example, that East switches to a low heart and West wins, returning the ten of trumps. Even if you guess to play dummy's king, you will still make the contract. You can ruff a diamond, setting up a long card in the suit. The defenders will score only one diamond, one trump and one heart.
North's 4D was (by agreement) Roman Key-card Blackwood with diamonds agreed as trumps. The 3-step response showed two aces. How would you plan 6D when West leads the ten of trumps? No special play is required but you do need to plan your sequence of play carefully. The general idea is to ruff a club and a heart in the South hand. Ruffing spades in dummy is not a good alternative because you might be ruffing with honours and then lose a trump trick. You win the first trick with the trump jack, cross to the queen of clubs and lead a heart to the king. East wins with the ace and returns a second trump, won with the queen. After the queen of hearts and a heart ruff, you play the ace of spades and cross to the king of clubs. Although clubs may be 3-3, you ruff a third round of clubs with the ace (to guard against a 4-2 split). You return to dummy by ruffing a spade with the six and draw the last trump with the king. The last two tricks are taken by the king and nine of clubs. As you see, nothing particularly clever was involved. You just needed to make a clear plan and follow it.
North's 2NT indicated (at least) a sound raise of spades to the three-level. It also showed 4-card spade support. With only 3 spades North would have bid 3H instead. With a near-minimum hand, South should probably have signed off. Still, how would you play 4S when West launches the defence with the three top hearts? The original declarer ruffed in the dummy and East discarded a club. This placed the trump king with West. Declarer continued with a trump to the ace, hoping to drop a singleton king with West. West followed low and won the next trump with the king, exiting with his last trump. Declarer now needed to pick up the diamonds without loss. One possibility was to find East with a doubleton king; he could then finesse the diamond jack and play the ace to drop East's king. A second possibility was to lead the queen of diamonds from dummy, playing West for a doubleton ten. Declarer cashed dummy's king of clubs, West following suit. He had shown 11 cards outside diamonds, so it was no longer possible to drop a doubleton king of diamonds in the East hand. When declarer led the queen of diamonds from dummy. East covered with the king, won with South's ace, and the jack dropped West's ten. The dubious game had been made.
North's 2S indicated (at least) a sound raise of hearts to the three-level. It showed 3-card heart support. With 4 or more hearts he would have bid 2NT instead. Although South held only 12 points, he was well worth bidding game. He had a chunky side suit in clubs. Also North was unlikely to have much wasted opposite the spade singleton after West's overcall. How would you play 4H when West begins with the king and ace of spades, East playing the 4 and 6 to show three cards in the suit? Let's see first how the original declarer went down. He ruffed the second spade and played two rounds of trumps, discovering the 4-1 break. Whether or not he drew the outstanding trumps first, he was doomed to fail when the club finesse lost. A spade return from East would cause declarer to lose trump control. Did you spot declarer's mistake? He should have discarded a diamond on the second round of spades. He can then ruff the next spade, draw trumps and take the club finesse. It loses but now East has no spade to return! Whichever minor East plays back, declarer will score five trumps, three clubs and the diamond ace-king. Sometimes you can preserve control by refusing to ruff in the long-trump hand until the short-trump hand can take the force. The technique on this deal was different. You needed to exhaust East of the suit used for the force (spades).
When you hold an ace opposite a 2C opener, you will often be heading for a slam. That's not the case when the opener rebids 2NT or 3NT. An ace is usually worth around one-and-a-half tricks (one for the ace itself and half a trick more for the use you can make from the entry). This is not enough to bring you to 12 tricks, particularly when you have 4-3-3-3 shape. Anyway, how would you play 3NT when West leads the jack of hearts to your queen? You continue with the ace and king of hearts, just in case hearts are 3-3 and East discards a club on the third round. You have eight tricks on top and your task now is to give yourself the very best chance of scoring a second spade trick. You should duck a round of spades. West wins with the eight and cashes a good heart on which you throw the four of clubs. You win West's return and play a spade to the ace, intending to lead a third spade towards the queen. As it happens, the spade king drops doubleton from West and the queen is then good for your ninth trick. This spade play works when East holds the king, or West holds the king singleton, doubleton or tripleton. This gives you a total chance of around 85%.
How would you play 6NT when West leads the jack of spades to your ace? Let's see first how the original declarer went down. He saw that a 3-2 club break would give him an easy 12 tricks. Aiming for this chance, he ducked a round of clubs at Trick 2. This was an 'automatic play' with such a club combination, one that he had made many times before. Unfortunately, it was inappropriate on this deal. The defenders won the club trick and cleared the spades. When clubs subsequently proved to be 4-1, there was no way to recover the situation. Since dummy had a side entry, the diamond ace, there was no need to duck the first round of clubs. Declarer should instead have cashed the ace and king of the suit. If clubs break 3-2, it is then a simple matter to concede the third round of clubs, using the ace of diamonds to enjoy the established long cards in the suit. When clubs do not break, you can take advantage of a second chance, that of scoring three heart tricks. You play a low heart to the nine. Whether or not West wins with the king, you will cross to the ace of diamonds to lead a low heart towards your hand. When the queen appears from East, you will win with the ace and score three heart tricks for the slam.
This is a famous hand from the past. If you have not seen it before, I'm sure you will find it intriguing. How will you play 6S when West leads a top club, ruffed in the dummy? You can afford to lose a trump trick, provided you do so at a time when you still have a trump left in dummy to deal with a club continuation. The best play is to lead a trump to the nine at Trick 2. If West wins with the queen, he cannot damage you. A club continuation can be ruffed in dummy and after any return by West you will be able to draw the remaining trumps and claim the contract. The interesting point arises if West is smart enough to duck smoothly when you take this trump finesse. What then? Even though you have already taken an apparently successful trump finesse through East, the safety play is to now take a trump finesse through West! You run the jack of trumps and East shows out. You can then cross to the king of trumps and return to a diamond to draw the last trump. You end with an overtrick. Suppose instead that you assume that East holds the trump queen and cross to dummy's king of trumps to repeat the finesse. You will then go down. You will lose at least one club trick in addition to a trump trick.
How will you play the spade game when West leads the queen of hearts? Let's see first how the original declarer went down. He won the heart lead in dummy and finessed the queen of trumps successfully. He then returned to dummy with the king of diamonds and finessed the jack of trumps. The finesse won but, sadly for declarer, West showed out. There was now no way to avoid a loser in each of the four suits and the contract went one down. As you see, finessing in trumps did not guarantee the contract even if the finesse won. Declarer should therefore have taken the club finesse instead. That finesse would win too, as it happens, and now the contract will be made. Declarer plays the ace and queen of trumps, draws trumps and later crosses to the king of diamonds to repeat the winning club finesse. The recommended line of play will succeed 53% of the time, way ahead of the 37% chance for an initial trump finesse. A further edge in favour of playing on clubs is this: if the club finesse loses, you will still have the chance to use the king of diamonds entry to pick up a possible K-x in trumps with East. True, West can avoid this by the super-clever play of ducking the king of clubs to make you think that the club finesse has worked. That would be a double-dummy play, though, since he doesn't know that you hold the jack of clubs.
Let's admire a wonderful bidding sequence from the final of the NEC Cup in Yokohama City. England faced Russia/Netherlands and Frances Hinden ventured Three Hearts on the West cards. Sjoert Brink protected with 3S and Bas Drijver responded 4C. Since he had not bid on the first round, this agreed spades as trumps. Brink bid RKCB, hearing of one key-card. Mere humans would now have been happy to bid 6S. No, Graham Osborne's lead-directing double had shown useful clubs over the ace, so Brink could place North with good values in the red suits. He continued with 5NT, discovering the diamond king opposite. Expecting partner to hold a singleton heart, Brink suggested a grand slam with 6H. Drijver, who did indeed hold a singleton heart, accepted the grand-slam try, ending a truly excellent sequence. At the other table the bidding was 3H – Pass – 4H – 4S, for a 17-IMP swing to Russia.
North used Roman Key-card Blackwood to discover that South held two aces and the queen of trumps. How would you play 6H when West leads the nine of spades and East plays the three on dummy's ten? The original declarer followed with the four from his hand and, with both club honours offside, the slam could no longer be made. The winning play at Trick 1 is to win with the spade ace. You need to set up and enjoy dummy's diamond suit and it is essential to retain the king of spades as an entry. After winning with the ace of spades you draw one round of trumps with the ace. You then play the ace and king of diamonds, discarding a club, and continue with a third diamond ruffed with the nine. A trump to dummy's king allows you to establish the diamond suit by ruffing a fourth round with the jack. After drawing West's last trump, you cross to the carefully preserved king of spades and discard two more clubs on the established jack and six of diamonds. You lose a club trick at the end but the slam is yours.
South uses a check-back 2C to locate the 5-3 spade fit. How will you play 6S when West leads the nine of trumps? You win with the jack and cash the ace of trumps, all following. What now? One possible line is to continue with the three top diamonds. You will then make the contract when diamonds break 3-3 or the defender with the last trump holds four diamonds. You will go down as the cards lie, because West will be able to ruff the third diamond honour. A better line is available. You should aim to ruff three clubs in the South hand (a dummy reversal). You cross to the ace of clubs and ruff a club with the five. A diamond to the king is followed by a club ruff with the queen, a diamond to the queen and a third club ruff with the king. It remains only to cross to the ace of hearts and draw West's last trump with the ten. Count the tricks that you made. Three trump tricks, six top cards in the side suits and three club ruffs in the South hand. This line of play would not have been possible if trumps were 4-1. You would then have to test the diamonds, ruffing the fourth round with the ten if possible.
West leads the king of hearts against 3NT. How would you tackle the play? You have seven tricks on top and must aim to score an extra trick from both spades and hearts. You have the honour cards to achieve this and the only risk is that the defenders can score three diamond tricks before you have achieved your goal. Since you do not want West to switch to a diamond, you should win the first round of hearts with dummy's ace. What now? If you simply take a spade finesse, West may win and switch to diamonds; you will then go one down when the spades do not break 3-3. A better idea to cross to your hand with a club and lead a spade towards dummy's jack. If West (the danger hand who can switch to diamonds) rises with the king, you will have the two extra tricks that you need in spades alone. If instead he plays low, dummy's jack will win and you can then establish a ninth trick in hearts. Suppose that East held the king of spades, he would win the jack with the king but could not attack diamonds successfully from his side of the table. It is an example of the technique known as 'avoidance play'.
How will you plan this 6NT contract when West leads the queen of hearts? You have ten tricks on top, so must aim to score a total of four tricks from the club suit. What is the best line? Suppose you start with the ace and then lead the nine of clubs to the jack. You will succeed when the finesse wins and East holds no more than four clubs; you can then cash the king of clubs and concede the fourth round of the suit. You will succeed also when the finesse loses but clubs break 3-3. This is a combined chance of around 60%. A better chance is available, one. that makes use of dummy's nine of clubs. You finesse the nine on the first round. When West holds the ten, the nine will either force the queen or win the trick. Again you will be OK if clubs are no worse than 4-2. When the nine loses to the ten with East, you remaining chance is substantial. You will succeed when clubs break 3-3, also when the queen of clubs falls doubleton. Although it is not easy to calculate such matters at the table, this line of play offers you around a 68% chance. So, one time in twelve you will gain a slam swing by following the correct line! Play with such accuracy throughout a match or duplicate session and you will swing the odds well in your favour.
Some players would have made a Michaels cue-bid of 2S on the South cards, showing at least 5-5 shape in hearts and a minor. This does not tend to work well when you have a 6-card major and I much prefer South's bid of 2H. See if you can match South's efforts in the play. West begins with the ace and king of clubs. What is your plan? Since West might have switched to a singleton spade, declarer was inclined to place him with a void in that suit. He therefore discarded a club on the second trick, expecting that West would have to help him with his continuation! When West decided to play a third round of clubs, declarer won in the dummy and discarded a diamond. The queen of hearts was covered by the king and ace. Declarer returned to dummy with the ten of hearts and finessed the diamond queen successfully. After drawing the last trump, he played the ace of diamonds, dropping East's king. He could then concede a diamond trick to West, claiming the remainder. Suppose East had declined to cover the queen of hearts. Declarer would then have finessed in diamonds, since he would need East to hold 6-2-2-3 shape for the contract to succeed.
How will you tackle 4S when West leads the queen of diamonds? If there is a trump loser, you will need to avoid a further loser in each of the side suits. How can that be done? You win with the king of diamonds, preserving the diamond entry to dummy. Two low cards appear on the ace of trumps and you continue with the ace and jack of hearts. West wins with the heart queen and persists with another diamond honour. You win with dummy's ace and lead the ten of hearts, discarding your last diamond. West wins with the king and tries to cash a diamond, but you ruff in the South hand. You then cross to dummy with the king of trumps, East showing out, and discard your club loser on the established nine of hearts. You lose two hearts and a trump but that is all. The play on the third round of hearts is known as a loser-on-loser play. You swap a diamond loser for a heart loser. No trick is gained directly on that trick but you gain by setting up the nine of hearts for a later discard. If West is no great friend of yours, you can point out that a club lead would have beaten the contract!
West leads the ten of spades against 3NT and you win with the jack. If you simply play to establish the hearts, you will lose three spades and two hearts. Instead you must aim for an extra trick from one of the minor suits. You do play one round of hearts, however, West winning with the king. He continues with ace and another spade, East throwing a heart. What now? You play the three top diamonds, finding that East guards the fourth round (West discards the seven of hearts). Both defenders follow to the ace and king of clubs. When you lead a third round of the suit, East follows with a spot-card. Should you finesse or play for the drop? After West's heart discard, you can count him for 6-3-2-2 shape. You finesse confidently on the third round of clubs and duly make the contract. West does better to throw a spade on the third round of diamonds, since he needs only three spades and two hearts to break the contract. If you feel that he is competent to make such a discard when holding A-K-x in the heart suit, you should still finesse in clubs. You will succeed on this line if West started with A-K-9, A-K-7, A-K-5 or A-K-3 in hearts. You will lose only when he began with A-K doubleton. That is odds of 4-to-1 in your favour.
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text:
1834 10C Large 4 MS65 PCGS. CAC. JR-1, R.1....
2013 March 21 -22 & 24 US Coin Signature Auction - Dallas #1183
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Heritage Auctions
3500 Maple Avenue
Dallas, TX 75219
|Printable auction results for all items in the 2013 March 21 -22 & 24 US Coin Signature Auction - Dallas.
1834 Capped Bust Dime, MS651834 10C Large 4 MS65 PCGS. CAC. JR-1, R.1. From a large mintage of 635,000 pieces, the 1834 Capped Bust dime employed four different obverse dies and six different reverses to strike a total of seven known die varieties for the date. This delightful Gem represents the JR-1 Variety, with a Large 4 in the date and a double arrow shaft on the top arrow. The design elements are sharply detailed, with evidence of recutting on some of the stars and a die crack uniting stars 1-5. Vibrant mint luster adds to the terrific eye appeal. Population: 6 in 65, 6 finer (2/13).(Registry values: P1) (PCGS# 4526)
Large 4, JR-1 Variety
Large 4, JR-1 Variety
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