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Problem: The Auction: West North East South 1♦ dbl pass 2♦ pass 2♠ pass 3♣ pass 3♦ pass 3♥ pass 4♣ pass 5♣ all pass This week's deal is modified from a deal that occurred in the US team trials. You are invited to take the South seat, declaring 5♣ after West opened the bidding with 1♦. West leads the ♦A, and follows it up with the ♦K and ♦Q, East ruffing with the ♣5 the third round, you overruff with the ♣9. You draw trumps next, West shows up with three of them, East discards two hearts (remember, he has already used one trump to ruff the third diamond). When you play a heart towards the ace, West follows with the jack, creating a finesse position in the suit for you. The question now is, do you finesse the ♥10, or do you play West to have QJ doubleton in hearts? Solution: West has shown six diamonds, making East a favorite to hold length in the majors. This implies that West is likely to have the singleton ♥J, and that it is right to finesse the ♥10. On further thought, if the heart finesse works, you don't need it! The correct play is to play the ♥K. If West turned out to have the QJ doubleton in hearts after all, you have successfully divined it. And if West shows out on the ♥K, you will be able to squeeze East in the majors! West has shown up with six diamonds, three clubs, and one heart - he therefore can have no more than three spades, making the squeeze a sure thing. You simply cash your last trump, pitching a heart from dummy, squeezing East in hearts and spades. If East discards the ♥Q, you cash the ♥10. If East instead discards a spade, dummy's spades become good, and you can show off by winning the last trick with the ♠2! The point of this deal is that if the finesse of the ♥10 wins, you | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Note that the contract is not 100% guaranteed - West may very well have a hand such as ♠ x ♥ QJx ♥ AKQxxx ♣ Jxx in which case the contract can never be made.
Bridge Baron's line of Play Bridge Baron 16 deal No : N4453-50683-44732-21068-05374-52975 |
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| Name | Comment |
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| phaltukumar |
the solution does not lead the discussion clearly. The crux of the matter is that declarer has to foresee and take the line of squeeze by leading the last trump( after three rounds of trumps) rather than leading a major from the hand. From the discussion,the mind of the reader goes towards finding the solution to problem if West has singleton or doubleton Hearts. If this was to be the only possibility, declarer can well find out by playing three rouds of spades to see if west has 2 or 3 spades. If he has 3, declarer finesse the Heart 10 because then he can have only 1 heart. |
