If you are able to find the winning defence in today’s a deal from an IMP pairs contest, you can rate yourself as world class. Are you ready?
West, your partner leads the D2. Take the East seat and plan your defence.
How the defence went:
East won with the Ace and returned the nine which West ruffed. West duly returned the two of hearts.
Dummy put up the Ace, cashed the CA to which he followed with the king and cashed the CQ on which he discarded a heart. Declarer exited in a spade next. East won with the ace and was end-played.
If he returns a club, dummy ruffs while declarer pitches another heart from hand.
The DQ is used for discarding the fourth heart.
Analysis
South seems to have opened on Q-T-x-x-x-x with some outside values. You can see very clearly three tricks for the defence. Where should the fourth come from? Obviously, from hearts.
Is there a defence to prevent the throw-in?
Solution
You bet, there is. At trick two, cash SA and play a diamond. Partner ruffs and shifts to a heart. Now, there is an inescapable heart loser in declarer’s hand.
The full hand was
Discussion
The point of the hand is that you should foresee the end play coming on you. Cashing the SA prevents declarer from thrusting you with the trump ace. Since partner has doubleton in trumps, cashing SA cannot lose.
Are you world class?
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.
Win D Ace and return HK. The contract still goes down and does not need partner to have H 10
Sry, but this is nowhere close to the best defence.
We need declarer to hold d kx and 6 spades. suppose declarer has 6223? he will win partner’s return, throw h loser on dq and finesse clubs if he needs it.
The alternative is to win DA and switch to HK, get in with SA give pd a ruff, and hope that he can cash hq.
can it cost? if, like here, declarer has stiff ck he will pitch dk on c before playing spades. but will this cost the contract? In this case declarer has 6421. As long as partner has qt h, he still has 2 h losers. So.. DA HK.
Sry LS