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Daily Bridge in New Zealand
So simple but so hard to find.
I just love today’s deal because of the simple solution involved in making your contract. Just take a look. Your 4S bid after your right-hand opponent’s 1C opening seems the obvious thing to do.
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East Deals |
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West |
North |
East |
South |
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1 ♣ |
4 ♠ |
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All pass |
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Partner produces an ace in dummy but not the most useful one while West is kind of helpful by leading 
J to your Q. Plan the play.
“What’s the problem?” you might ask. 8 spade and 2 club tricks make for a very easy game made. “The problem” of course occurs after you lay down the 
A. West never started with any spades and your loser count suddenly has increased from three to four. Unlucky? Sure. Annoying? Very. Presumably, the bad break occurred at other tables too.
You could exit a heart won by East who continues clubs. You win and exit a second heart, The defence win and cash their club winner before playing a third heart. Wonderful as you are about to play 
Q and get to dummy for that marked trump finesse. Unfortunately, on the Q you have to play a trump from your hand…and you are back where you started, in your hand, and one down!
“Too late” they cried. Damage control should occur before the event, especially when there is no loss in doing so!
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East Deals |
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West |
North |
East |
South |
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1 ♣ |
4 ♠ |
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All pass |
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“What if” should be the message going through declarer’s thought pattern the moment they saw dummy. There was a way to get to dummy and dispose of one what seemed like 3 certain losers…and at the same time keep the losers to three if there was a bad trump break.
At trick 2, South should play T! Say trumps were 2-1. You have given away a spade to the queen for no obvious reason…except you now have no club loser. You play a second round of spades, low to the J and now make good use of 
A.
Same result when the trump break was friendly: game guaranteed when trumps break 3-0. If the holder of Q ducks 10, South will have back their 8 spade and 2 club tricks. If they take Q, then there is no club loser.
Did you find the solution?
Did you play that way? If so, you deserve any imp swing you get. So simple but not so obvious!
Richard Solomon
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