| Double the Pressure |
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North leads the ♥ K and follows with a low Heart. The pressure is tangible. It's team play at a National Congress and there's a game bonus if you make it but an expensive penalty if you don't.
What is your plan to make the Contract?
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| Show Answer |
The key to finding the right play here is to count your winners as well as your losers. You have four Top Tricks (♠ A, ♣ A K Q) so you only need five Diamond Tricks. You will ruff the second Heart but how are you going to play the Diamond suit, and what could go wrong?
This is team play so South will not have doubled you into game without a solid diamond suit.
It looks like you should finesse the ♦ A 10, The best way to do this is go over to the ♣ K and play the ♦ 8 which is allowed to win. What now?
It is tempting to ruff a Heart to get back to hand and play Trumps. That is not a good idea because it gives South a chance to discard a Club if he is out of Hearts. You must cash the ♣ Q first before ruffing a Heart. Having done that you go back to Dummy with the ♠ A and ruff another Heart. You now have your nine tricks: ♠ A; three ♥ ruffs; ♦ 8; two of ♦ KQJ; and ♣ KQ.
Your team mates are delighted unlike mine because this is written in hindsight, I went one down at the table :) |
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| Time to pinch yourself! |
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I had 15 points and a very strong 7-card Heart suit when South opened 2♥ . North announced 'weak' and confirmed that South was showing 6 to 10 points and six Hearts. I felt a bit like Alice in Wonderland must have felt. What would you have done?
You can't double as that is for takeout. You know partner has no Hearts so communication could be difficult in Hearts, and anyway a lot of pairs would play 3♥ here as 'Michaels' showing 5-5 in Spades and a Minor. I chose 2NT showing 16-18 points (I borrowed one) and 2 stops in the opponents suit which i definitely had. This worked well as it allowed partner to bid 4♠ knowing (or so he thought) that we had the points for game.
Our opps led the ♣ 6. The contract is makeable. How would you plan to play it?
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| Show Answer |
You can see ten tricks: ♠ QJ109 once the ♠ AK have been knocked out, plus the ♦ AKQ, the ♥ AK, and the ♣ A. You also count five losers in your hand, the ♠ AK, a Diamond and two Clubs. You need to either dump two of those losers on the ♥ AK or trump them with Dummy's two trumps before they disappear (or a mix and match between the two)
The difficulty is that you know North has no Hearts (South has shown six and Dummy has seven) so making full use of the ♥ AK will be difficult, and Dummy's Trumps are very vulnerable to opps leading Spades.
Win the ♣ A and playing the ♥ A puts North under immediate pressure. North has to ruff otherwise you can discard (dump) one of your minor suit losers immediately. If North ruffs high you can still discard (dump) a losing Minor (known as a loser on loser play) but with the ♠ A gone North has given you a trump entry to Dummy.
So North does best to ruff low which you over-ruff and then cash the ♦ AKQ throwing your losing Club from Dummy. Now you can ruff (trump) a Club loser in Dummy and lead the ♥ K putting North under pressure again. Once again North has to ruff otherwise you can discard (dump) your second minor suit loser. You only wanted to discard two so that would be your job done.
Once again North does best to ruff low. You should overruff and lead your last Club towards Dummy. Now South is the one under pressure. If South ruffs low you overuff (trump) your second loser in Dummy and that is job done. If South ruffs high then they immediately transform one of the small Spades in your (East's) hand from a loser into a winner (the one that would have lost to the ♠ A). Once again Job Done!
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