Dealer
N Game All
Another
deal from the Tollemache qualifier.
You
reach four hearts, West starts with the three top
spades, East following.
You
trump high, draw trumps in four rounds, West having
a singleton and then play the king of clubs followed
by a club to the jack which holds, East showing out.
West
has thrown two small diamonds and a spade on the
trumps and East two small diamonds on the clubs.
How
do you play?
Scroll
down for solution
Solution
You can count West for a 5134 distribution and East for 3451. If West had thrown all his spades you would have been able to throw him in with a club to lead a diamond into your AQ. The question is who has the diamond king? Alec Smalley reasoned that if East had the diamond king he would have raised to two spades, so played a diamond to the ace dropping the now singleton king. Well played by Alec and well defended by Steve Allen of Hertfordshire. The
full deal was
Phil
Taylor points out that the hand is laydown at the
point where you play a diamond, either the ace will
drop the king or, if East has the king, you can play
a club to dummy and a diamond to hand. Since
East only has diamonds left you cannot be prevented
from winning the diamond queen.
Thanks
to John Roberts for reporting this deal
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