Source:IBPAColumn Service JUL 2020Tim Bourke**Source: wikipedia:Tim Bourke “is an Australian bridge player and writer. His joint project with Justin Corfield “the Art of Declarer Play” won the International Bridge Press Book of the Year award in 2014.IMPs Dealer West. Both Vul
A K Q J 10 2
—
A Q 10
A K J 5
7 5 4
9 6 5 4
J 4 3
10 7 3
West
North
East
South
1
Dbl
31
Pass
Pass
4
Pass
4
Pass
6
Pass
Pass
Pass
1. Pre-emptive
West led the A. Declarer ruffed with dummy’s ten of trumps as East followed with a deceptive queen of hearts, suit preference, hoping to distract declarer from a diamond finesse. Declarer was not fooled, however, as from the bidding, he placed East with just four hearts headed by the queen-jack and West with the king of diamonds.
Declarer continued by cashing the ace and king of trumps, somewhat disappointed to find the suit three-one. (If they had been two-two, declarer planned to play the ace-king and another club and ruff dummy’s fourth club to take the repeating-finesse in diamonds.) However, he found the neat continuation of the jack of clubs. That would always have succeeded as long as the clubs had been no worse than four-two.
If the jack of clubs had been taken by the queen, the ten of clubs would have provided an entry to dummy to run the jack of diamonds, thereby making three diamond tricks and the contract. If the jack of clubs had held, then declarer would have cashed the ace and king of clubs. It would not have mattered whether either of these was ruffed or not, for dummy’s five of clubs could then have been ruffed and the diamond jack run to bring in three tricks in diamonds.
The complete deal:
A K Q J 10 2
—
A Q 10
A K J 5
