Last fortnight we saw a deal where declarer, almost magically, made a seemingly impossible 6♥ contract. Incredible as that deal was, it didn't get the team anything because some extraordinary play occurred in the closed room as well, albeit in a 6♠ contract from the other direction.
Read what happened and marvel at the beauty of the game.
The board directions and the board number have been changed for reading convenience.
Even though North denied 3 spades, South felt that his good trump suit, along with his control rich hand merited bidding the slam.
West led the ♣9 on which East played the ♣J and declarer won the ♣A. When he played the ♠A, West pitched a club.
How should one play now?
Do think about what you may like to do before you read on.
Analysis
If one goes with the normal analysis we can see that. A spade loser is inevitable. However, if the diamond finesse works, we should be able to pitch our losing club on the third diamond. and then simply give up a trump trick.
Play
Accordingly, declarer finessed the ♠J, cashed ♦K and finessed the ♦J. When declarer played the ♦A next, West ruffed!
Declarer now had to recalibrate his plan. He over ruffed and then played 3 rounds of Hearts ending in dummy. Fortunately, West had to follow to 3 rounds of hearts and was helpless when the fourth heart was led, effectively finessing his ♠Q
This was the full hand
Afterword
As you would have perceived, declarer’s play centered around discarding his club loser. Playing for the diamond finesse offered a fifty percent chance which he tried first. He was happy the finesse won but was extremely unfortunate to find the DA getting ruffed. However, he was subsequently extremely lucky to find East following to all three rounds of hearts.
Did you find the elegant play?
Disclaimer : All opinions are entirely those of the author and are no reflection of the views of the BridgeFromHome Team.