Dlr: South
Vul: None
North
T
76
AKQJ542
KT4
West East
QJ75
K984
T9
QJ2
876
9
AQ75
j8632
South
A632
AK8543
T3
9
Auction:
North East South West
1
P 2
P
2
P 4
P
P P
This hand became interesting because of the Dare to Practice session. There was a similar hand that came up that nearly every declarer got wrong. The Dare hand required that you give up an early trump in order to retain control of a side suit; if you did this, then you made the contract, if not, you were down.
On this hand, the defense started with the Q
. My initial thought was to ruff two spades, then play three rounds of trump, hoping that they split, I would lose a
,
and
.
I then realized that there was an alternative line that might net an additional trick while practicing one of the techniques coming out of Angel Blue's lessons. I still needed trump to break, but instead of ruffing any spades, I give up a trump at trick two. That way, I still have control of the spades, and do not need give up that trick.
So at trick two, I led a trump. West overtook the trick to lead a
(trying for a Merrimack coup, perhaps - cutting my communication with dummy). My ten won the trick, two rounds of trump pulled the defensive teeth, and a
to dummy completed 12 tricks.
Obviously, the best contract is 6
, but few found their way to a diamond contract, and the one that reached the slam failed to find the winning line on a trump lead. Primarily, you need to be flexible to take whatever opportunity the defense allows.
On the trump lead, you need to play for
's to break - play AK and ruff the third round, and after pulling trump, use the A
to get back for the winning
's.
On a
lead, you lose to the A, the K is now good, and you get to ruff the last
. Everything else will be top tricks.
On a
lead, you win and lead a
hoping the ace is onside. It is, so then you just need to ruff the small
and take top tricks.
