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South opens 1NT and after a stayman enquiry shows 4 spades and North bids 4Spades.
You cash the diamond AK partner follows with the 9 and 2 showing an even number and declarer with the 6 and Jack.
What next and why?
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Answer
Partner can’t have any points but though in general it is not a good idea to give a ruff and discard it sometimes leads to declarer losing trump control.
So, lead another diamond -it doesn’t matter which hand he trumps in - you duck the first two rounds of trumps and win the third and play another diamond which promotes a trump for you.
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South opens a heart you bid 1Spade and over North’s 1NT partner passes South bids 3H and North 4H.
You lead spade King [for count] to the 2,3,7 and you switch to the club 7 to the Ace,8 and 10.
The Heart Jack goes 8,2 and your King what now?
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Answer
Quite a few bridge hands are about cashing defensive tricks in the right order which sometimes means you have to protect partner from himself.
You know the second Spade trick is standing up but he doesn’t and if you continue clubs he might try to cash a second club winner so cash your spade then lead a club. |
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South opens 1Spade and over 2 Diamonds from his partner bids 3Spades and North bids 4Spades.
You lead the club 10 to the Queen, King and 2. Partner plays a trump which runs to the nine in dummy and declarer plays the diamond 6 to the 5, Queen and your Ace.
What now and why?
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Answer
You to count declarers tricks.
Surely he has a six-card spade suit for the bidding and if he has the heart Ace he will have ten tricks so we must switch to the heart Queen now.
Notice the good play of ducking the club King so that the defence can’t play hearts through unless West has diamond Ace. |
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South opens 1NT [15-17] and North raises to 3NT.
Your partner leads the diamond 3, seven from dummy and you?
What is your plan and why.
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Answer
On this hand if we count points we know partner doesn’t have any.
The play of the automatic diamond king and unblock the Jack can’t work because partner has a 5 card suit only [4th highest] at best so to maintain communications we must play the diamond Jack to drive out the Queen then unblock the King under the Ace when you come in with one of your Aces
Notice you must win the Ace on the first play off the suit otherwise declarer can switch to his other suit. |
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South opens 1NT [16-18] and his partner raises to 3NT.
You lead the heart 4 to the Jack and declarer’s Ace.
South leads club 3 to the Queen and 5 and continues with the club Jack on which partner discards the diamond 2 and you win your Ace.
What do you play now and why?
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Answer
West knows from trick one South began with AK9 of hearts and at trick three declarer has 6 clubs.
Therefore, South’s shape is 2:3:2 6.
You can’t defeat the contract on a diamond switch so the only hope is the Spade suit.
Therefore, switch to Spade jack. This is called a surround play. |
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South opens a club and over his partner’s 1Spade rebids 1NT [12-14].
His partner now bids 3Spades and he bids 3NT.You lead the diamond 5 to the King,10 from partner and 3 from declarer.
He leads a club from dummy to the King and your Ace.
What do you play now and why?
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Answer
West should hear alarm bells ringing when South won in dummy and played clubs not spades.
For the play to have any sense declare must have the spade Queen.
Otherwise he would win with Ace in hand to play spades.
We must switch to a heart fast to defeat the contract. |
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North opens a club and South responds a Spade Which North raises to 2Spades.
South bids 4Spades and partner leads the King of Hearts. Over to you.
What now and why?
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Obviously we should overtake so we can get a ruff if declarer has three hearts but even if he only has two we might be able to promote a trump by ruffing with the spade 10.
However real expert play is to cash the diamond Ace before we play the second heart just in case partner has the diamond king and declarer has solid spades. |
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South opens 1Spade and over his partner’s 2Diamonds bids 2Spades which his partner raises to 4Spades.
Your partner leads the club 6 the eight from dummy and you.
What is your plan and why?
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With that dangerous diamond suit in dummy being a great source of tricks we need to act fast.
Even if partner does have the club King we would need a heart switch and a trump trick from him which is very unlikely. However, if he has the heart ace we will defeat this by heart King, heart to the ace, and over ruff dummy of the third heart. |
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