Ding dong

Today’s deal is from a match-point event.

North South had a simple 1♥ - 2♥ - 4♥ auction to reach game

South, the declarer received the lead of the Club 10. Plan the play

 

 

Analysis

With connected cards of K-Q-5 in spades and K-Q-5-4 in clubs and a singleton, you will agree that South has an easy 4♥ bid. With the club nine on view in dummy, it is easy to diagnose immediately that West had led the ten from a doubleton. Further, to be aiming for a ruff, West must be having some sort of trump control.

Declarer also needs to retain the club ace in dummy to be able to avail of pitches on the ♦ KQ if allowed.
Is there any way, we can take care of the situation?

How the play went:

Declarer won the lead in hand, cashed ♥A, and played the queen. Luck was with him as West won and East followed with the jack. First hurdle crossed.

West exited with a second club. In order to retain an entry for the diamond winners, declarer won in hand again, removed the lurking trump, and played the ♦J. West followed with the ♦2 to indicate an odd number of cards.

Convinced that declarer must have ♠ K-Q-x for his jump to 4♥, East could count ten tricks for him if he won the trick. So, he ducked, preferring to forego a trick, but denying two for the declarer.

Declarer played the ♠K next from his hand. East won and played the third club to dummy’s ace, thereby establishing a club trick in his hand.

It now appears that declarer must fail. But he had another trick up his sleeve! He played the ♦K from dummy, ruffing out East's Ace. He then cashed the ♠Q and exited with his last spade.

West won, but had only diamonds to play to dummy's queen allowing declarer to pitch his club loser. The fourth spade then gave him his tenth trick!

The full hand was

Note that it doesn't help East to duck the Spade King. West Simply continues with the Spade Queen to effectively reach the same ending!

Post mortem

From the word go, it was a ding-dong battle between the declarer and the defenders.

The initial analysis from South leading to the play of the Ace and Queen of Hearts was brilliant!

Admittedly, he needed luck to pin the Heart Jack, but we have again been taught that when a contract appears next to impossible you pray for a layout which will allow the contract to make.

East did well to duck the Diamond ace on his part. But then, declarer continued with the hope of a distribution that would allow him to make his contract

Impeccable declarer play and excellent defence. A rare thing in a single deal..

We hope you enjoyed this deal. Do let us know in the comments below.

 

Disclaimer : All opinions are entirely those of the author and are no reflection of the views of the BridgeFromHome Team.