As the cards lie, doesn’t the spade shift both make sense (you can see that South probably needs to trump diamonds on the board) and defeat the contract? It gets a little tricky, but in the end I don’t see how South avoids losing two clubs and two diamonds.
True, West can imagine a layout where the spade switch lets the contract through (especially if his name is Karapet…or Jim2), but to me it still looks like the best shot.
What say you?
Cheers,
Jeff
Iain ClimieMarch 25th, 2026 at 8:50 am
HI Jeff,
Makes sense to me I must admit – but finding it at the table would be trickier, although maybe easier with SQxx (or maybe not). South should definitely assume West has the SQ when a trump doesn’t appear at T2 though.
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Hi Everyone,
As the cards lie, doesn’t the spade shift both make sense (you can see that South probably needs to trump diamonds on the board) and defeat the contract? It gets a little tricky, but in the end I don’t see how South avoids losing two clubs and two diamonds.
True, West can imagine a layout where the spade switch lets the contract through (especially if his name is Karapet…or Jim2), but to me it still looks like the best shot.
What say you?
Cheers,
Jeff
HI Jeff,
Makes sense to me I must admit – but finding it at the table would be trickier, although maybe easier with SQxx (or maybe not). South should definitely assume West has the SQ when a trump doesn’t appear at T2 though.
Regards,
Iain