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Declarer Play Problems #3

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This quiz accompanies the article Lose 'em all.

Have a go at trying to solve this declarer play problem. Your overall score will be displayed, along with the correct answers once you’ve complete the exercise. Good luck!

Declarer Play Problems #3

Declarer Play Problems #3

Problem 1

Contract: 7♦
Lead: ♦5, East following with the ♦2

What's your plan?

Correct Answer:
c) Win with the ♦9, cash another Diamond and then ruff a Heart.

After the trump lead, you win with dummy’s 9 and cash a second trump. You ruff a Heart, cross to dummy with a Club, ruff a Heart, go to dummy with a Spade and ruff a Heart. When the Ace appears you ruff, go to dummy with the ♠A, draw the outstanding trump, unblock the Clubs and claim. You don’t need the ♥A to fall – just reversing the dummy is enough to deliver the thirteenth trick.

Problem 2

Contract: 6♠ (after East has opened 1NT promising 10-12).
Lead: ♣10.

Do you:

Correct Answer:
c) Win with dummy’s Ace, cash a Spade, play three rounds of Diamonds, ruffing, overtake a Spade and play all your remaining trumps.

East’s opening bid makes it certain that the Heart finesse will fail. Your only hope is to play for a three-card ending where East can be thrown in with a Club to lead into dummy’s Heart tenace. Because you need to ruff a Diamond you will need the trump suit to behave.

Problem 3

Contract: 5♣ doubled (West opened 1♥ and your partner overcalled 2♦, East bidding 2♠ and then doubling 5♣).
West leads the ♥K and, when East follows with the 3, switches to the ♠Q.

What do you do?

Correct Answer:
a) Win in dummy and play all you trumps

Once you appreciate that East is unlikely to have doubled with only the ♠KJ, it becomes clear that the Diamond finesse will be wrong. If you play off all your trumps, East will be down to ♠J ♥J ♦K6 and obliged to throw the ♥J. Then you exit with the ♠10 to force a lead into dummy’s Diamond tenace.



This article was written by Larry Cohen and was originally published in Bridgerama+.

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4 comments on “Declarer Play Problems #3”

  1. The problem with your answer is that a 5-1 club break sinks the hand. The suggested line of play makes on a 5-1 club break as long as spades are not 6-1. The full play:
    D9
    DK
    Heart ruff
    SQ
    Heart ruff
    SA
    Heart ruff
    CJ
    DA (draws last trump, pitching 5th club)
    CQ
    SK
    CA
    CK

    Reply

  2. The distribution of D suit in P1 in the answer is inconsistent with the description of trick 1 and apparently with the answer itself. If D9 holds and everybody follows, we have extra chance of dummy reversal with trumps 3-2 to hedge afainst C 5-1 while playing a second trump to dummy after H ruff we know if trumps are 3-2 or 4-1.

    Reply

  3. On Problem 3: If you don''t ruff a heart at trick 2, E could pitch 4 spades, the heart J, and a diamond, and you can't be sure whether he started with J93 of hearts or J3.

    Reply

  4. i don t get problem 1. on a !d lead with east following the !d break is no worse than 4-1 from the choices for !c !c could be 5-1 with the short !d having 5!c. so win !dAK unblock !cs, cross to !sK and ruff !c with !d9. then ruff !h draw trump and claim. the answer diagram is flawed.

    Reply

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