Problem

Which contract was played by North/South and how many tricks could the declarer take?

North and South have 25 HCP between them so a game is clearly indicated.

Dealer: North

Vul: both

Contract: ?

Solution

The auction was opened by North with 1♠. East passed. South responded 2♦. West passed. North  bid 2♥. East passed. South declared 3NT.

West led the ♣3. Dummy`s ♣J was covered by East`s ♣Q.

The declarer ducked and let East win the first trick (trick 1). East led a club to dummy´s Ace (trick 2). South led the ♦3 from dummy. East`s ♦J fell under South`s Queen (trick 3).

South took the next trick with the ♦A (trick 4) and led a small diamond discarding a heart from dummy. East won the trick with the ♦K (trick 5) and led a club. South won the trick with the ♣K in hand and discarded another heart from dummy (trick 6).

Now South`s diamonds were good and the declarer cashed in two diamond tricks (tricks 7, 8).

West discarded two spades, the declarer discarded the last two hearts from dummy´s hand and East a heart and a spade.

As three spades were pitched, defense had only three spades left. South took first a trick with the ♠K (trick 9) and next led a spade to dummy `s Ace (trick 10). As the declarer had discarded all the hearts from dummy`s hand and the spades were all promoted into winners, the last three tricks were won by the declarer with dummy`s three spades (tricks 11, 12 13).

The declarer could count on 6 top tricks and had three 7-card suits – spades, hearts and diamonds. As clubs were led the declarer had to decide, which suit to establish till the two stoppers in clubs held.

The declarer met success in setting up the diamonds and managed to win four tricks forcing defense to discard and thus managed to establish dummy`s spades.

South also had to choose himself, what to discard from dummy`s hand. The decision to discard all the hearts was a bold one and paid off – the declarer won five tricks with the spades after defense had had to discard two times.

If the declarer had discarded two spades and two hearts, the contract could have still been made but with no overtricks.

So the declarer succeeded to win 11 tricks playing a notrump contract.

The par contract on this deal is 5♥ by North. North loses only the two trump tricks to the ♥AK – also winning 11 tricks.

Par Contract Analysis

The par contract on this deal is 5♥ by North.