Source: IBPA Column Service Jan 2018
Dealer East E/W Vul
|
 K 9 4 2
 Q 8
 K 8 5
 A 9 4 2 |
|
| 10 7 6 5
—
J 10 9 7 4 3 2
7 3 |
|
8
K J 10 7 4 3
A Q 6
Q 6 5 |
|
A Q J 3
A 9 6 5 2
—
K J 10 8 |
| West |
North |
East |
South |
|
|
1 |
1 |
| Pass |
31 |
Pass |
4 |
| Pass |
Pass |
Pass |
|
- Good raise to three spades South was a devotee of the Mike Lawrence school of overcalling, which believes that length in the opponents’ suit is a plus, even with a four-card suit!
West’s lead of the jack of diamonds suggested to declarer that hearts were 6-0. Declarer played low from dummy and East followed with the six. Declarer’s main concern was the danger of losing a club to West; he would much rather lose one to East if he failed to pick who had the queen of clubs. Also, he did not want to play on clubs before drawing trumps.
This was the reasoning behind declarer’s slightly-ostentatious move of winning the first trick with his jack of trumps: his calculation was that this would not matter if trumps were 3-2 but doing so would give him more flexibility whenever West started with four trumps.
After cashing the ace and queen of trumps, declarer played the three of trumps. When West followed with the seven of trumps declarer finessed dummy’s nine and then drew West’s remaining trump with the king, discarding a heart from hand.
As he was facing a singledummy, rather than a double-dummy, problem, declarer now crossed to the king of clubs and ran the jack of clubs as a form of avoidance play. East won with the queen of clubs and exited with the six of clubs, which was taken by declarer with the ten.
Declarer was confident that East had started with a 1=6=3=3 distribution and that he had three hearts headed by the king plus the ace-queen of diamonds left. A club to the ace forced East to let go of a red card and he chose the less costly option of a heart – throwing the queen of diamonds instead would see declarer make an overtrick by playing a low diamond. This was the position:
|
Q 8
K 8
|
|
|
10 9 7 4
|
|
K J
A Q
|
|
A 9 6 5
|
Declarer continued with the queen of hearts and played low from hand after East covered it with king. Rather than allow declarer to run East’s own suit, East cashed the ace of diamonds then conceded the last two tricks. Declarer made four trumps, one heart, one diamond, one diamond ruff and three clubs.
You should note that the endplay would have come earlier if East had started 1=6=4=2 shape and the queen of clubs. On winning with that card, East would have been forced to lead away from the king of hearts or the ace of diamonds.
