Hand of the week commencing Sunday 17th December 2006
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ª |
Q
9 3
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Dealer
North |
© |
K
10 6 |
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Love
All |
¨ |
K
7 6 3 |
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§ |
Q
J 8 |
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N |
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ª |
8
4
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ª |
A
10 6 |
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© |
J
2 |
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W
E |
© |
A
Q 8 5 3 |
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¨ |
J
10 9 4 |
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¨ |
Q
5 2 |
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§ |
A
10 9 4 2 |
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§ |
6
3 |
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S |
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ª |
K
J 7 5 2 |
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© |
9
7 4 |
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¨ |
A
8 |
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§ |
K
7 5 |
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W |
N |
E |
S |
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NO |
1© |
1ª |
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NO |
2© |
NO |
2ª |
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NO |
NO |
NO |
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Your
are West, the ©J
is led and declarer covers and partner switches to §6,
declarer following suit with the §5,
plan your defence.
When
you defend you must build as many tricks as you can. Also you need to keep “in
touch with partner” ie have good clear lines of communication open with your
partner the other defender.
With
this in mind, you first need to count your winners. You have the ©A
already and one club. You will need to find 4 more. Partner must have control of
the trump suit to have any chance of breaking this contract. Declarer followed
suit to the club switch with the 5. Unless he is false carding the 3 must be in
partner’s hand and the switch is top of doubleton. If you take your Ace now
you will cut the all important lines of communication as you have no other entry
to give partner a club ruff. So at trick two you duck the club. Declarer now
plays a trump and partner wins with his ace, you hoped he had. He now fires back
a club which you can now win to give him his club ruff. He now cashes the Heart
Queen and gives you a Heart ruff. You have now taken 5 tricks in a row together
with your original ©A
and defeated the contract by one. Keeping lines of communication is one of the
single most important factors in both declarer play and defence. If it can only
be achieved by ducking, when you have an ace, if in doubt then duck.