Hand of the week commencing Sunday 30th July 2006

After a somewhat dubious auction what is South’s best line of play in 7NT

after §4 lead ?

At first glance it looks like the hand needs a good guess in Diamonds, the Diamonds breaking or the Queen being a singleton. But, can you improve your chances ?

Initially you have 3 Spade winners, 3 Heart winners, 2 Diamonds and 4 clubs bringing the tally to 12 so in fact you only need one more !! So before making the Diamond guess why not test the Spades. Maybe the Spade Jack will be in either opponent’s hand doubleton or tripleton. Now the Diamond finesse will not be needed.