The Plan XXXV by Tim Bourke

IBPA Column Service example 861 Dealer Oeste. EW Vul.

	10 9 7 3 2  K 6 4 3  A 2  J 3
A  Q J 10 9 2  Q J 10 6  Q 7 4		6 5  A  9 8 7 5 4  10 9 8 5 2
	K Q J 8 4  8 7 5  K 3  A K 6

The Auction:

West	North	East	South
1	Pass	Pass	1
Pass	2*	Pass	4
Pass	Pass	Pass

1. Good raise in spades West led the queen of hearts.

Declarer played low from dummy and East took the trick with his singleton ace, and then had to find the entry to West’s hand to acquire his ruff. As North/South had at least ten trumps, the odds favoured the ace being in declarer’s hand. Accordingly, East shifted to the ten of clubs at trick two. As East had won the first trick with the ace of hearts declarer placed the ace of trumps on his left. Clearly there would not be a problem if West had at least two trumps, so declarer turned his thoughts to overcoming the problem of West having a bare ace of trumps. Declarer’s plan was to strip the minor-suits from his hand and dummy before playing a trump. If East ruffed the king of hearts he would then have no satisfactory exit card. So after taking the club shift at trick three with the ace, declarer cashed the ace and king of diamonds. Next he cashed the king of clubs and ruffed the six of clubs high. Only then did he call for a trump from dummy. West took the king of trumps with the ace and returned a predictable jack of hearts. Declarer covered this with the king and East ruffed with his remaining trump. As East had only minor-suit cards remaining, declarer was able to throw his heart loser on the return and ruff it dummy for his tenth trick.