3rd February 2021


Dealer E Love All.

S Q7
H 10653
D AJ652
C KQ
   


   
S KJ53
H KJ874
D Q104
C 2

South
West
North
East



1C
1H 1S(1) 2C Double(2)
3H Pass
4H All Pass

(1) 4+ spades
(2) 3 card spade support

This deal is from the Teams Qualifier at the Manchester Congress.

You reach four hearts on the above auction with East West playing a strong notrump system.

West leads the spade ten, you play low from the dummy, East wins the ace.  East now plays the ace of clubs, two, five, queen and follows with a spade to dummy's queen.

How do you play the trumps?



Solution

You need the king of diamonds to be with West to make the contract.  In that case East must have the heart ace for an opening bid.  Can East have the heart queen as well?  If she did then West would only hold three or four points for his bid of one spade.  So play a heart to the king.  This holds and now a second round of hearts draws the outstanding trumps.


The full deal was


Dealer East
S
Q7
   
Love All
H
10653
   
    D AJ652
   
    C KQ
   
S
10982
    S
A64
H
Q2
    H
A9
D
K9
    D
873
C
J10865
    C
A9743
    S
KJ53
   
    H
KJ874
   
    D
Q104
   
    C
2
   

Thanks to Jovanka Smederevac for analysing this deal