Hand of the week commencing
Sunday 23rd March 2008
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South
Dealer |
ª |
A K 10 8 7 2
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Neither
Vulnerable |
© |
6
2 |
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¨ |
J
8 5 |
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§ |
Q
6 |
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N |
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ª |
J
9 5 3
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ª |
Q
6 |
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© |
Q
10 9 |
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W
E |
© |
J
8 5 |
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¨ |
A
9 3 2 |
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¨ |
Q
10 7 6 |
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§ |
J
3 |
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§ |
9
8 5 4 |
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S |
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ª |
4
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Lead
¨2 |
© |
A
K 7 4 3 |
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¨ |
K
4 |
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§ |
A
K 10 7 2 |
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W |
N |
E |
S |
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1© |
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NO |
1ª |
NO |
2§ |
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NO |
3ª |
NO |
3NT |
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Plan
your play in 3NT after opponents lead ¨2
i)
when playing teams ii) when
playing MP’s.
From the lead you know that West has led from a four card suit which
means that now you can never have more than 3 Diamond losers. This means you can
lose one more trick and still get home.
If the Spades break 33 then the Spade suit will bring in 5 tricks and
you will easily amass 4 more tricks from the other three suits. Alternatively
you could go all out for clubs and hope they are 33 then all the clubs will come
in for 5 tricks or if they are 42 then perhaps one player has a doubleton Jack.
Enabling the 10 to become high, (The worst scenario would be West holding J9854
of clubs refusing to lead them since you had bid them during the auction)
i)
Playing IMPS where the contract’s safety is the most important
factor you should duck a round of Spades first to test this suit. For you to
obtain extra tricks from this suit it has to be 33 and you cannot afford to play
Ace King off the top and lose control (in case its 42, as it is here). Once the
Spades turn sour you can fall back on the Clubs and get home when the Jack falls
doubleton. You now only make 2 Spades,
2 Hearts, 1 Diamond and 4 Clubs since they have cashed three winning Diamonds
when they took their Spade trick.
ii)
Playing MPS when overtricks are vital you should now go all out
for Clubs at the start since if this suit behaves you now have 10 tricks in the
bag without the need for setting up any extra Spade tricks. Going for the clubs
straight away, with the favorable lie of the cards, you now amass 2 Spade
tricks, 2 Hearts, 1 Diamond and all 5 clubs for a well earned top score.