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It’s Fri  Day… for those new to the game.

Hold up for your Contract!

“Hold up” or else you will be forced to give up your contract! That’s the message in today’s deal. See below what we mean.

 

 

A simple auction. South’s opening 1NT shows 12-14 high card points and a balanced hand. With 13 hcp, enough for game, and no 4+ card major suit, North jumps immediately to 3NT, the most likely making game contract.

West leads K. Plan the play.

You can only plan, do your best and hope because if one defender, and that is more likely to be West, holds more than 4 diamonds and the A, you are going to fail in your contract. Your major suits will only provide 5 tricks. Add on A and you need club tricks to come to 9 tricks. So, you need to play on clubs.

However, there is still hope.

The “hope” is that East holds the A. In that case, you want to do your best to ensure that when they win that trick, they have no more diamonds left to play. Watch.

 

If you win the first trick and play a club, East will win and you will lose 5 diamond tricks to be 2 down. So, you must not win the first or indeed second round of diamonds (West is certain to continue with Q.). You win the third round and play clubs. East is helpless to get to their partner’s winning diamonds. You will win 5 major suit tricks, 4 club tricks and A…10 tricks in total…success because you ducked the first 2 rounds of diamonds.

As East only had 2 diamonds, you could have won the second round, though that would not have scored you any extra tricks…and would have been wrong had West held 5 diamonds and East 3.

  for success!

“Ducking to break the defenders’ means of communicating with each other" is a common technique for a declarer. Sometimes it will not work (like above when West has A) but you will be pleased you took this precaution when it does.

Richard Solomon

 

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