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Losers or Loser!

Well, if you do not get rid of them, that’s what you will be. So, you had better make a good plan, quickly. Your slam looks a little dicey.

 

4 was a cue-bid agreeing spades. The Key Card response showed 1 or 4 key cards, enough for North to try for small slam.

So here you, in slam, and naturally, they got off to a challenging lead, Q. Plan the play.

Some North players opened their hand 4. The hand seems too strong for this action. A 4 opener, especially at favourable vulnerability, should not normally contain a side-suit ace.

Our declarer did not give themselves a chance by drawings trumps and then discarding a club on the high diamonds. A blind spot.

 

 

With the club lead, it was too late for North to make any use of South's heart suit. So, the heart loser had to go….and as often happens, the declarer missed the place where one of their club losers could go.

So, win the A and play a diamond to dummy, and two more high diamonds discarding North’s heart. Now, give up a club trick, regain the lead (the defence will probably play one of the major suits) and ruff a club in dummy.

There were 10 declarers in this slam from last weekend’s North Island Teams. All received a club lead with the success rate of this contract being a miserable 50%. So, if you thought it easy to make this slam, maybe the pressures of the moment make it less so.

Richard Solomon

P.s.  while we would like to salute those who did well in this event, a wrongly entered score has delayed the confirming of the event winners.

 

 

 

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