I’m staggered East didn’t try 5S over 5D especially given his dead DK. There again if he had done, partner would probably have held (say) 5-4-3-1 with stiff CJ, DJxx and a bit more in hearts. West’s S at T2 is a bit brainless though, conceding a tempo. The same sort of thing is often seen when the opening leader plays a second top card against a slam in a situation where declarer needs to shorten his trumps for a later trump coup. In the same way declarer should always stop and think at T1, West (if still on lead) should often do the same at T2.
Welcome back,
Iain
David SnookMarch 27th, 2024 at 5:34 pm
Ah…
Heree’s what I think works here…
After trumping West’s second high spade in hand, I immediately play the ace of hearts and then finesse the heart ten in dummy. I don’t think I can make my bid, five diamonds, if the finesse doesn’t work and fortunately it does.
Now that I’m in dummy, I play a trump which fortuitously pulls the king from East whicch I cover with the ace. Seeing as there were only three outstanding trumps unaccounted for, I can now play a trump from my hand and force whichever hand (West in this case) is holding the queen to lay it down, and I believe I’m home free.
If the finesse of the heart ten at trick four hadn’t worked, or one of my opponents had held all three outstanding diamonds, I don’t think I could have made my bid but when both of those broke in my favor, I can now take any card West leads following the diamond queen and get up to the dummy using the diamond jack to get rid of my bad clubs on the king and queen of hearts.
Subscribe to our feed
Bridge-related
Hi Bobby,
I’m staggered East didn’t try 5S over 5D especially given his dead DK. There again if he had done, partner would probably have held (say) 5-4-3-1 with stiff CJ, DJxx and a bit more in hearts. West’s S at T2 is a bit brainless though, conceding a tempo. The same sort of thing is often seen when the opening leader plays a second top card against a slam in a situation where declarer needs to shorten his trumps for a later trump coup. In the same way declarer should always stop and think at T1, West (if still on lead) should often do the same at T2.
Welcome back,
Iain
Ah…
Heree’s what I think works here…
After trumping West’s second high spade in hand, I immediately play the ace of hearts and then finesse the heart ten in dummy. I don’t think I can make my bid, five diamonds, if the finesse doesn’t work and fortunately it does.
Now that I’m in dummy, I play a trump which fortuitously pulls the king from East whicch I cover with the ace. Seeing as there were only three outstanding trumps unaccounted for, I can now play a trump from my hand and force whichever hand (West in this case) is holding the queen to lay it down, and I believe I’m home free.
If the finesse of the heart ten at trick four hadn’t worked, or one of my opponents had held all three outstanding diamonds, I don’t think I could have made my bid but when both of those broke in my favor, I can now take any card West leads following the diamond queen and get up to the dummy using the diamond jack to get rid of my bad clubs on the king and queen of hearts.
Does that work?