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38 Oops my trumps didn’t break

 

ª J 7 6 4 3

© Q J 5

¨ Q J 4

§ 8 5

ª Q 10 8 2                 ª A K 9 5

© 9 7                           © A K 8 6 3

¨ 6 2                           ¨ A 9

§ A K Q 9 4              § J 7

ª -

© 10 4 2

¨ K 10 8 7 5 3

§ 10 6 3 2

Board 27 : Dealer South : Love all

West                North               East                  South

                                                                        Pass

1§                   Pass                 1©                   Pass

1ª                   Pass                 4NT                 Pass

5¨                   Pass                 6ª                   End

 

Lead ¨J.  North wanted to confuse declarer about his distribution.

 

This deal occurred in the Thursday teams event.  When declarer looked at dummy she was wondering whether they had missed the grand slam since a 3-2 spade break was all that was needed.  Expecting to make a quick claim she won ¨A and cashed ªA.  South’s diamond discard stopped her short.  The only hope is some sort of trump coup on North.  So the play should go:

Win ¨A; cash ªA; cash §J; cross to §A; play §K - this is North’s first decision.  Discarding will not really help so North ruffs and dummy overruffs; cash ©A; cash ©K; ruff ©3.  This is the position:

ª J 7 6

© --

¨ J 4

§ --

ª Q 10                       ª K 9

© --                             © 8 6

¨ 6                               ¨ 9

§ Q 9                          § --

ª -

© --

¨ K 10  7 5

§ 10

North still has trump control but declarer has two weapons – clubs and hearts are all winners.  The technique is to use these as “trump substitutes”.  West, on lead plays §Q.  If North ruffs (as good as anything) dummy overruffs and cashes ªK.  Then ©8 is used to discard West’s diamond loser.  North might as well ruff this but has used his last trump.  West ruffs the diamond and cashes §Q.

 

Maybe you wonder what would happen if North didn’t ruff §K but discarded a heart.  East discards a diamond. 

Declarer then crosses to ©A K and ruffs a heart.  §Q follows and North would probably ruff and East overruffs.  A winning heart is played from dummy and North ruffs.  In the three card ending North either leads a trump and declarer can draw trumps to cash a winner or North leads a diamond and declarer cross ruffs the last three tricks.

 

There is an important lesson in the deal.  When something bad happens look and see if there is some possibility of overcoming it with a little luck in the other suits.

If you are really observant you will notice that there is an alternative line which is to discard a diamond instead of overruffing.  That works if North started with 5=4=2=2 distribution instead of 5=3=3=2.  But it fails against the actual layout.  So which should declarer play?  There is one key indication – if South had ¨K Q x x x x x he might well have opened 3¨ or at least a weak 2¨.  That points to North having three diamonds so three hearts.  Finally, if North had two hearts and four diamonds the contract can only be made on a very fortuitous layout of the hearts (and a risky play in clubs!) so you should discard that idea.