Problem

The Auction:

all pass

Your partner has answered your opening bid of 1♣ with a weak inverted minor raise and you, feeling as frisky as ever, go for 3NT of course. West leads the ♦8 and you must decide whether or not to play the ♦A from the dummy, as diamonds are your only weakness...

Solution

You can take two tricks with spades, two tricks with hearts and after getting rid of the ♣A, five more tricks with clubs. The problem is, if you lose your only control in diamonds, the opponents might defeat the contract after getting the lead with the ♣A and cashing in four or more tricks with diamonds.

So it is a hard decision – how to play the first trick! The rule of eleven indicates that East has the ♦Q, besides, if West had an unbroken sequence in diamonds – the ♦KQJx, he would have led the top card. So, if you duck, East might win the trick and lead diamonds back to West.

Its obvious you must play the ♦A from the dummy`s hand, hoping to either catch the ♦Q or to block the opponents further attempts to play diamonds.

As your analyses told you that East must have the ♦Q, the only way to make the contract is to block the diamonds, taking the first trick with the ♦A and leaving East holding the ♦Q. Thus even if East or West leads the diamonds again after taking the trick with the ♣A, the opponents would get only one diamond trick as there wouldn`t be another entry to the hand of West, who holds the longer suit of diamonds.

Par Contract Analysis

The par contract on this game is 4 ♥ X by East-West.