A defence from the
duplicate at Cheadle Hulme in January.
Love All matchpoints Dealer South (deal rotated)
(1) 12-14
(2) Transfer to spades Partner leads the five of diamonds (second or fourth) and declarer plays the jack from dummy, how do you defend? Solution It looks as though
partner has made a passive lead from three or four small. So
declarer has three points in diamonds and 9-11 points in hearts and
clubs.
Partner would have
led an honour from a combination such as KQ or AK, so it is possible,
though tedious, to go through all the combinations of honours that
declarer can have in the rounded suits. It turns out that when
declarer has KQ or AQ of hearts and the ace or king of clubs it is
vital to play a club through before the hearts are set up for a club
discard from dummy. This has to be done immediately, so winning
the
first trick with the diamond ace and switching to a low club is the
best
defence.
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