Dealer
N Game All.
This
deal is from a Lancashire League match last month.
You
respond one notrump to partner's opening bid playing
a two over one game forcing system.
When
West's overcall of two hearts comes back to you you
double to show a maximum and partner essays three
notrump.
West
leads the spade jack, you play low from the dummy,
East plays the seven and you win with the king.
How
do you continue?
Solution
This is a suit management problem, if clubs break 4-1 you will need to find West with a singleton jack or ten. When
you play the king West plays the ten, you must
unblock the nine from dummy in order to make five
club tricks.
After
running the clubs the diamond finesse wins and you
have nine tricks.
Can
you do better though? What if East has five
clubs? Since you need the diamond finesse
anyway to make the contract you can start with a
small club to the ace. If West plays an
honour, play the nine from dummy next to the king
and proceed as above. If the clubs are 5-0
you will need the spades to be 4-4 (or blocked)
and the king and queen of hearts to be with
West. Play the nine of clubs next,
East will cover and you win with the
king. Now a heart towards dummy, if
West splits his honours win and set up a second
heart trick, you will eventually come to nine
tricks, one spade, two hearts, two diamonds and
four clubs.
The
full deal was
Thanks to John Holland for analysis |