LEARNING CENTER

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This deal was (mis)played online. See if you can do better.

South held...

 2  
 AK754  
 A1052  
 A105.

He opened 1 and after a 1 overcall, he was raised to 2. He made a game-try bid of 3 which partner accepted by jumping to 4.

Q83  Q62  KQ94  J32

2  AK754  A1052  A105

The A was led (ace-from ace-king) and East discouraged. West shifted to the 8. 

If hearts are 3-2, there will be no problem (at most a spade and two clubs to lose). But hearts were 4-1 (RHO had four of them). Declarer eventually guessed to lead a club from dummy to his 10, but you can see from the full layout that he was down one. 

 

 

 

 

 

Vul:Both Dlr: South	Q83  Q62  KQ94  J32
AKJ754  3  873  K96		1096  J1098  J6  Q874
	2  AK754  A1052  A105

No matter how declarer played clubs, he had to lose two tricks there and one in each major.

How should it be played? The title was a red herring. Don't touch those clubs! At trick two (on the diamond switch), play low from dummy and capture East's J with your A.

Draw 3 rounds of trump ending in dummy. Now play the K then the 9. If East trumps the third diamond, he has to play a black suit. If a spade, discard a club (loser on loser) and then use the Q to reach dummy to throw the other club on the Q. If East breaks clubs, play low from hand. West wins the K, but now you can cross in diamonds to finesse in clubs.

What if East doesn't trump the third diamond? Then overtake the 9 with the 10 and play a trump. East has the same dilemma as above. He has to play a black suit and you lose only two tricks between clubs and spades. 

By staying off clubs and making East use his trump winner to play a black suit, you score a brilliant 620.

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