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 South. Both Vul
A J 9 5
7 5
7 6 4 2
6 4 2
K Q 7 4
Q 2
K Q J
A Q J 10
West
North
East
South
2NT
Pass
3
Pass
3
Pass
4
Pass
Pass
Pass
West led a passive 10. East took the king and ace of hearts, noting West’s nine on the second round – suggesting a diamond card. In response to this suit preference signal and, as he did not want to help declarer by leading a black suit, East shifted to the ten of diamonds. West took declarer’s king with his ace and exited with a diamond.
Upon winning the trick with the queen of diamonds, declarer saw that he would need the club finesse to be successful (and with no defensive ruff) to make his contract. Declarer thus began by cashing the king of trumps, everyone following with a low card. Next, he led the queen of trumps and, when West followed, declarer overtook the queen with dummy’s ace.
The wisdom of this became clear when East showed out: declarer had two more entries to the dummy. He used his three entries to dummy to take three club finesses to make his contract. There are a couple of points of interest: if trumps had been three-two rather than four-one, declarer’s overtaking manœuvre on the second round of trumps would not have cost.
After the club finesse had succeeded, he would have drawn the last trump and ruffed a club for his tenth trick. Finally, it would not have benefited East to play another heart at trick three: declarer would have thrown the ten of clubs from hand and ruffed in dummy. As a result, declarer would have needed two, rather than three, club finesses to make ten tricks.
The complete deal:
A J 9 5
7 5
7 6 4 2
6 4 2
