Board 4: An Attractive Shape |
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East has a textbook take-out double and when West is strong to bid despite not having to (because South has bid) then East should go to 4♥ .
The reason is that once an 8-card fit is found the Diamond void adds considerably to the value of the East hand. One way of quantifying this is the Losing Trick Count and if you play that the East has a LTC=5 which is a very strong hand. If you want to learn more about the Losing Trick Count I have coaching sessions on it on the 5th January, repeated on the 10th.
North leads ♦ A. Plan the play. How will you make your 10 tricks?
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Show Answer |
You count 5 Losers in your hand (two Spades and three Diamonds). Remember you only need to count Losers in Declarer's hand.
You can get that down to three by ruffing the lead in Dummy, drawing trumps, and discarding a Diamond on the fifth Club
Do that and you safely make ten tricks.
Start thinking about ruffing a second Diamond loser which you don't need to do, and you can get into trouble if South ruffs a second round of Clubs. |
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