Board 15 in 32WED
This deal was reviewed in the latest Wednesday Review, from Wednesday 10/8/16
Board 15 Dealer S NS Vul
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This is about declarer play. The declarers in 4H managed to fail somehow so let's see what should happen. West is in 4H after South has bid diamonds, possibly twice. North leads the seven of diamonds which goes to South's ace. South returns the queen and declarer plays the king and sighs with relief when North follows with the six. That should be one problem solved.
The only other problem now is in the spade suit, with two potential losers there. But wait! Declarer also has a potential diamond loser, but that can be taken care of immediately. Why bother to draw ANY trumps? Did you notice that declarer and dummy have all the top hearts between them, so the losing diamond can be ruffed with the ace, king, or queen. They are all the same size as declarer's J1098. SO, declarer ruffs the diamond with the ace in dummy and only then proceeds to draw trumps, playing dummy's king then the three to hand. South shows out revealing that North had four trumps. That is a bit of a worry but no big deal if declarer is careful.
Declarer should now embark on the spade suit, while keeping one trump in dummy and two in hand. You should know by now that if you are able to take a finesse through the same opponent TWICE, you have a 75% chance of one of the two finesses working. ONE finesse is 50%, therefore TWO finesses are half that again, 75%. That sort of maths should not be difficult and is necessary. So is maintaining control of the trump suit, and you will soon see why. Declarer leads the jack of spades and when North does not cover, lets it run. South wins the king and the best continuation is either a club or a diamond. If South knows about 'ruff and discard' situations, then South will not lead a diamond. Instead South leads a club which declarer wins in hand. Now declarer can try spades again, leading the ten, and this time the finesse works, as it should 75% of the time. All that was needed for declarer to make 4H was a bit of thinking and, once more, attention to basics: ruff your losers or losers when you can safely do so, finesse at every opportunity if you need tricks, and keep control of the situation. Piece of cake, isn't it?
Now here is another hand that was badly played. I would like YOUR answers as to how YOU think it should be played before the next issue. I have altered the directions to make South declarer in 5C
North
 T |
 QT |
 AQJ964 |
 AKT2 |
South
| AJ5 |
| A54 |
| 872 |
| QJ98 |
West leads the KING OF SPADES against South's 5C. How would you plan to play the hand? Please outline your play in detail and send your answer to villyn@xtra.co.nz
