This is another one of those 'Look before you leap' series with the title of the post giving you an additional clue about what needs to be done.
Today’s deal is from an IMP pairs tournament. You are in the reasonable contract of 4♥. See if you can make the contract after the lead of the ♣A followed by a second club?
Play at the table:
West led the ♣A, East following with the ten. West continued with the ♣K, which declarer ruffed in dummy, East following with the nine. Declarer then ran the ♥9 of hearts next to West’s king. West played a third club. Dummy ruffed and played a second heart to receive a jolt. East showed out and, with an inescapable spade loser, declarer went down.
Post Mortem
Let us now once again analyze this hand with the framework we have.
Let us now analyze the hand on the lines that the experts have guided us
Analysis:
Let us now analyze the hand on the lines that the experts have guided us
- Once the lead hits the table, we can count 10 winners viz 2 Spades 4 Hearts, 4 Diamonds
- So, what could go wrong?In case, trumps break 4-1 dummy can be punched with clubs. Can this be addressed?
If trumps are breaking badly, we need to have 4 trumps in dummy to extract the outstanding trumps. How do we do that?
Correct Play
When West plays the third club, just discard a spade from dummy! If East continues a fourth club, it is a ruff and discard situation. Ruff in hand, draw trumps, and claim
the balance. The point of the hand is that you cannot allow the defence to shorten dummy as West will come to a second trump trick. By discarding on the third club instead of ruffing, you are simply trading your spade loser and retaining trump control. Sort of a loser-on-loser play.
The complete hands are:
Did you play the hand right? Do let us know in the comments section below!
Disclaimer : All opinions are entirely those of the author and are no reflection of the views of the BridgeFromHome Team.