Hand of the day #374
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This conundrum was written by Julian Pottage and was originally published in the book Defend or Declare - you can find out all about it further down the page.
Opening Lead: ♦2
In a game of any less than the highest standard, you can predict how the play will go. East wins Trick 1 with the ♦K and continues the suit. Declarer ruffs, crosses to dummy with a trump and leads a low club to the queen. West wins with the king and exits with the ♣J (or with a trump). Declarer finishes drawing trumps, ending in dummy, and leads the ♠J. East correctly refuses to cover and the queen wins. When the ♠K does not drop under the ace, the contract fails.
Certainly, East might have held the ♣K or a doubleton spade. Can you see any clues to the actual distribution? Can you find a line that caters for it? Do the defenders have a counter?
You place East with ♦AKJ or ♦AK10. Where are West’s values? If they were all in spades, East might have switched to the suit. In any case, West is more likely to hold the ♣K and one high spade than to hold the ♠KQ. Once you place the ♣K over the queen, you should look for an endplay. You cannot exit by running the ♠J. West would win and return the suit. You must create a tenace.
You ruff the second diamond, cross to dummy with a trump and ruff the last diamond. You then lead a low spade from hand; West must duck to avoid giving you a trick; East takes the jack with the king and returns the suit. You go up with the ace and run the trumps, arriving here:
West has to throw a spade to keep the ♣K guarded. A club goes from dummy and you exit with a spade to make the last two tricks in clubs.
If East returned a club when in with the spade, it would not break up the strip squeeze. You would play low from hand, retaining the queen as an exit card. The ending would be very similar, the only difference being that your split tenace would be in spades (Ax facing 10x). So long as you read what West has kept, you would still succeed.
What would prevent the above is if East switched to a club at Trick 2. That switch does defeat the contract.
An unusual problem format, it gave the reader all four hands and challenged them to analyze the deal and decide whether they wanted to play or defend. This sequel comprises 72 problems, presented in the same unique fashion, and will appeal to the same readership.
