Problem

The Auction:

North opens the auction with 1♥, you respond with 1♠; North repeats – 2♥ meaning a six card suit of hearts and you must decide what to bid. As you have two-card support and 13 HCP you could declare 4♥. On the other hand, you could repeat too as you have a strong suit of spades. How are you going to continue?

Solution

You continue with 2♠, North shows indeed a three card support with 3♠, so you declare 4♠. West leads the ♣Q, you take the trick with dummy`s ♣A (trick 1).

Although it seems quite an easy hand to play as you have a foolproof trump suit of 8 spades plus an 8-card side suit of hearts, your clubs are wide open after the first trick with no defense and diamonds are a weak spot too as you miss the ♦A.

Also you need to play it wise considering the transportation as you hold only two hearts; so you must keep a back door open to dummy in case one of the opponents has three hearts including the queen.

You lead a small spade from dummy and take the next trick with the ♠Q (trick 2). Next you take two tricks with the ♥K (trick 3) and then the ♠J (trick 4). Now the opponents have only one spade left, but you cannot take it down as the ♠K provides entry to dummy`s hand and precious hearts.

So you lead the ♥9, taking this trick with the ♥A to dummy (trick 5) and lead a small heart from dummy. East plays the ♥Q, to be safe you know you must ruff with a higher spade than the remaining spade in opponents` hands, so you ruff with the ♠10; West discards a small diamond (trick 6).

Now you can lead a small spade to dummy`s ♠K taking down the last spade East still had (trick 7) and win three consecutive tricks with hearts, pitching both of your clubs and a small diamond (tricks 8,9,10).

The opponents will win one trick with the ♦A (trick 11), while the last two tricks belong to you as you have the ♦K and ♠A (tricks 12 and 13).

It`s a pity you didn`t Blackwood as you managed to take 12 tricks with spades as a trump. How would you have fared if you had declared 4♥?

Could you have finessed the ♥Q? Even if you would have led the ♥J, East covered with the queen and you had won the first trick with the ♥K, East would still have had the ♥10 and the ♥5 guarding the ten against your ace. So losing a trick in hearts would have been unavoidable if hearts were the trump suit.

After gaining the lead with the ♥10, East would have certainly cashed in the ♦A and the ♣K, so overall the opponents could have won three tricks.

Par Contract Analysis

The par contract on this hand is 6♠ by North-South.