Answer to

Hand of the week commencing Sunday 19th November 2006

You are West. You lead ¨A and partner follows suit with the 10 at trick one, declarer following with the 7, 

 what do you play next ?

 

 

 

 

ª

K Q J  8 5

 

 

 

Dealer East

©

K Q J 9 5

 

 

 

Love All

¨

5

 

 

 

 

§

A 10

 

 

 

 

 

N

 

 

ª

9 6

 

 

ª

A 4 3 2

©

8 2

 

W                          E

©

6

¨

A K 9 6 4 3 2

 

 

¨

Q J 10

§

6 4

 

 

§

K J 9 7 5

 

 

 

S

 

 

 

 

ª

10 7

 

 

 

 

©

A 7 4 3 2

 

 

 

 

¨

8 7

 

 

 

 

§

Q 8 3 2

 

 

 

W

N

E

S

 

 

 NO

NO

3¨

4¨*

5¨

NO      *  Michaels showing both Majors

NO

DBL

NO

5©

NO

NO

NO

 

 

To break this contract you are going to need three defensive tricks and you will need to build those trick before declarer can dump any potential losers on dummy’s formidable Spade suit, on show for all to see !! With this in mind, at trick 2, you will need to switch to Clubs and hope that partner has Club King. Once you switch to the Club the contract sails off. If your table presence had not brought you to this conclusion then you might take note of partner’s ¨10 at trick one. This should be a suit preference signal. Since you have all the low Diamonds, partner’s 10 must be his lowest diamond, asking for a Club switch at trick two. Had he wanted a Spade switch, he might have deliberately dropped the queen or Jack. Partner must have these cards since he raised you to 5¨ in the auction !!

Without the Club switch, declarer will be able to draw trumps and chuck all three of his  four clubs on the Spade suit. He will get home making 4 Spades, 5 Hearts, 1 Club and 1 Club ruffed in hand.

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