Declarer is South, in 4S doubled. West leads the queen of hearts. How should declarer play to avoidminus 800 and a bottom board?
Board 6 from Tuesday 8/04/2025
Dealer E EW Vul
Nearly all the Souths who were doubled in 4S were down four for an equal bottom score. The story goes that East has opened a weak 1NT, South bid spades at either the two or three level, West doubled for takeout and East bid 4H. Then, South bid 4S as a sacrifice and was doubled. That’s all fine in theory but one look at all the XClubs results tells a different story. While quite a few Souths did bid 4S half of them weren’t even doubled, and there were also EW pairs in 4H as well as 5C so no accurate comparison is possible, but a rough check tells me that those in 4S doubled down four scored 15% on the board, and those few who were down only three doubled scored 65%, so not a top at all, but at least above average. Not to mention the number of Souths who played in 4S and were not even doubled! And who knows what the defence did to help declarer. But let’s take a look at how things might transpire when there is a competent declarer in 4S, compared to the casual declarer who will simply play the spades from the top and hope for the best.
Personally, given that South has sacrificed in 4S all on his own, if I were West I would lead the queen of spades, this being one of the few times that I would lead a trump, much less a singleton queen. But it matters not, the queen of hearts is also a standout opening lead and it is now up to declarer. After ruffing the second heart, declarer should look for the only chance of an extra trick, a club ruff. So, a club is led immediately by declarer. It is surprising how so many defenders will not even be aware that declarer is angling for a club ruff, but let’s say West wins the club and switches to the spade queen. Declarer wins and persists with another club. The defence now are, in chess terms, in a ‘zugswang’: East can allow a club ruff and thereby end up with a trump trick, or East can lead the five of trumps and put declarer to a guess, whether to finesse or play to drop the jack from West. That should not be a difficult guess for a competent declarer with such heavy odds favouring the finesse. But as I suspect, those who were down four didn’t even give the club ruff a second thought and played two top trumps and hoped. And, yes, there is another way to achieve the same -3 result: just one round of trumps and play on diamonds and/or clubs and sooner or later opponents will have to lead a second trump allowing the finesse, or give declarer that club ruff.
82
K632
J6432
T3