Friday, June 11, 2010

Open your jaws

South was the declarer in 6 with an apparent loser in spades and diamonds. Can you see how to overcome this?

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


West North East South
1 3 3
Pass 3NT Pass 5NT
Pass 6 All Pass

Declarer won the trump lead with dummy's 9. He drew trumps, continued with the A K Q, then played the A and another spade. West followed low and when South played the 9, East won the jack and was endplayed. He had to return a diamond, taken in dummy with the queen. Now declarer could draw trumps and claim.

After the A and another, West can play the queen, a crocodile coup. This fails, however, as declarer can duck, win the return, come to his hand and lead a spade to the 9 for his 12th trick.

2 comments:

  1. Hi,
    I really enjoy your blog. I assume that this is a book hand but you didn't write it up correctly. You have to pull 4 rounds of trump and the 3 clubs. As stated West would just ruff the diamond return for down 1.

    Now after pulling trumps and 3 rounds of clubs, Ace and a spade will endplay East. If West plays the Q of spades on the second round then you duck to create a finesse position.

    Dooug

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for your comment, Doug. I corrected the text.

    ReplyDelete