|
Dealer W N-S Vul.
The annual Deva
Bridge Club charity pairs event in October deservedly gets a good
turnout each year. There is a qualifying round in the afternoon
with the top 14 pairs playing a seven table Howell movement, while
those
who had no luck in the afternoon play a consolation scrambled Mitchell
movement. All this is efficiently run by the club and Sarah Amos,
with a meal being provided after the first session.
This instructive deal is from the final. After North has opened one club playing five card majors, East made a weak jump overcall of two diamonds and you quickly arrive in four spades. The lead of the two of diamonds goes to the jack, East cashes the ace of diamonds and switches to the queen of hearts. You draw trumps and when you play the other top honour in hearts East discards a diamond. How do you play? Does it matter how the trumps split? They did not break four nil. Solution The simple line of play is to take the club finesse, the alternative is to play East for the queen of clubs and play ace, then king then jack of clubs throwing a heart when East wins. East will then be endplayed to give you a ruff and discard, you will discard another heart from hand and ruff in dummy. East has shown up with six diamonds and one heart. If he had three trumps you should take the club finesse as West has five clubs to East's three. If East had one trump you should go for the endplay line as East has five clubs to West's three, and if trumps were breaking two-two then it's a guess as each defender has four clubs. |
