| Board 7: Good and bad leads |
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Every South opened 1♥ and was left in it.
The board wasn't flat though and that was probably due to the lead.
It's generally a bad idea to lead trumps if you have four of them as it's better to let declarer discover the bad break themselves.
It's also a bad idea to lead away from K J X X as you're probably giving declarer a free finesse
Left to their own devices declarer can only make 3 Hearts, 3 Spades, a Club and a Diamond.
Defenders who forgot the two 'rules' above will have given declarer a free ninth trick.
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| Board 8: Did we all miss a trick? |
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Every pair got to 4♥ and every declarer made 11tricks
A Spade lead is worst for declarer as it leaves the defence with the ♠ K and ♣ A to take when they get the lead
Even on a Spade lead though declarer can take 12 tricks
Can you see how?
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| Show Answer |
Declarer wins the first trick, cashes ♦ A then plays ♦ J overtaking it in Dummy. Now a low Heart finessing North's ♥ K which drops in two rounds.
Now a low Heart to dummy followed by the top Diamond discarding the Losing Spade
Now ruff a low Diamond then play the ♣ K to knock out the Ace and you still have a Trump left in Dummy to ruff the ♣ 10. |
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| A first simple example of a Squeeze |
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This is the first example of a series of squeezes which will follow in the next few weeks.
The bidding is straightforward and East leads the ♣ 7.
North counts 12 Top Tricks so needs one more trick. Where might it come from?
Well North could play the red suits out hoping that one of them breaks 3-3.
North does have another chance though. Can you see what it is?
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| Show Answer |
The extra chance is that either defender started with two four-card red suits. If North plays off the black suit winners before touching the red suits they will be left with seven cards in each hand. More importantly so will each defender and if either defender started with two 4-card red suits they will have to come down to three in one of them.
If Declarer sees a red suit discarded they should play out that suit first.
What if neither defender did start with two 4-card red suits? Well then declarer has lost nothing.
However when one defender did start with two 4-card red suits then playing the black suits first squeezes that defender and allows declarer to make a contract that will fail if they just play out the red suits.
NB. Note for the future that this squeeze operated when declarer was one trick short of the number they needed. |
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