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May Hand of the Month - from RealBridge 06/05/26
East leads ♥ 10. You win the trick and take a second round of trumps, East playing the ♥ 9 and West the ♥ J. The winning ♥ Q must be with West because East would not have lead a trump from ♥ QT9. You can't afford to lose any other tricks, so how will you play the hand?
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The normal plan with this type of hand is to eliminate the clubs and diamonds, then throw West in with ♥ Q. West would have to start the spade suit or give you a ruff-and-discard in clubs. This is quite a good plan as it works if West holds either the ♠ Q or ♠ 10.
There is a variation when you might be able to eliminate spades from West's hand, leaving him with just clubs. Then he would have no choice but to give you a ruff-and-discard.
Let's see how it goes...
The club finesse is successful, so you play ♣ A to eliminate that suit. When you tackle the diamond suit, East drops the singleton ♦ Q. After playing four rounds of diamonds, you are left with 5 cards - three spades and two trumps in both hands. West has ♥ Q, ♣ K and three other black cards. What are they likely to be?
During the play, East discarded ♠ 4, ♠ 3 and ♣ 5. It looks like he is keeping Qxx in spades. maybe QTx. If East started with 5-5 in the black suits and 3 red cards then West can only have two spades! It's a good chance anyway.
So play ♠ A and ♠ K, before throwing West in with ♥ Q. He has to lead a club and you are home and dry! |
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