Saw this nice hand in the Polish Open trials today, and it's a nice example of (a) counting the hand, and (b) being aware of what's "happening" on the hand. It would be a better hand at Matchpoint scoring, it's true, but Declarer's technique here should be automatic.
You hold
KQ5
K102
AQ86
1097
You and partner bid to 3NT on the following auction:
1NT - (2
1) - 3
2 - 3NT
(1): Hearts and a Minor
(2): Transfer to Clubs (GF)
LHO leads the 5
and Dummy goes down with
A7
974
J105
AQJ63
RHO plays the Q
at trick 1, taken with your King. You lead the 10
at trick 2. LHO plays the King and then shows out on the second round of the suit. Plan the play from here.
.
.
.
Declarer here showed excellent technique to (a) put some pressure on Opps, and (b) to give him a fairly complete count of the hand. 3 rounds of Spades followed, LHO showing out on the 3rd round, then 3 more rounds of Clubs, RHO playing a Heart on the last Club.
Now you're down to
9
J105
opposite
10
AQ8
It should be completely automatic here to exit with a Heart and endplay LHO to lead a Diamond back into your AQ tenace after taking their 2 Heart tricks. RHO started with 2 Hearts and LHO has shown up with only 3 cards in the Black suits, and so is marked with exactly 2551 shape. It's only an overtrick, since 10 tricks are assured, and it's a very easy and obvious example of an endplay, but you should get into the habit of seeking out and taking advantage of these situations so that it
does become automatic for the situations where it's
crucial in order to make a hand rather than going off.
