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"ROUGHLY" DOWN

Maybe the first word has been misspelt but the second word is clear evidence of what happened as another contract which should have been made bit the dust. A test for you. You made a very respectable overcall and much to your surprise, you have been doubled. There are two questions for you. Here then is the first:

 

Question 1

West led the 6 to East’s ace. East played 3 which you duck to West’s king. West returns 6. Where do you win trick 3 and which card do you play to trick 4? Even though there are two questions, this is just the first question! In case you are wondering, I do have an Irish connection!

East reopened the bidding and although they cannot have that strong a hand, it looks like East will have both missing diamond honours to give them an 11 count while West will have that K and   ATxx… hopefully only four clubs.  Well, that’s what it seems in which case you need to avoid two diamond losers as you will lose one trick in each major and two clubs. However, you can check on the club suit by leading from dummy, just in case all is not what it seems.

Question 2.

So win the Q in dummy and play a trump. To your surprise, East’s ace wins the trick. Note that to avoid two trump losers, you had to lead the first round of trumps from dummy. East’s next play is Q…and what do you play now

 

At the table, declarer ruffed low with West over-ruffing. West exited with the J and declarer was left to play diamonds and could not avoid two diamond losers..down one.

South should have thrown a diamond on the Q and when East continued with another spade have thrown their other little diamond…a version of throwing a “loser on loser”. West would have to ruff this next round of spades…and declarer could then claim for the loss of two tricks in each black suit and the K... no diamond losers.

Ruff either spade and you are down. “Loser on loser” to the rescue.

Richard Solomon

 

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