10th February 2021


Dealer S Game All.

S A97
H AK10854
D J85
C 3
   


   
S J854
H
D AQ7643
C K102

South
West
North
East
1D Pass
1H Pass
1S Pass
2C Pass
2NT
Pass
3H Pass
3NT Pass Pass Pass

This deal is from an EBU matchpoint duplicate last month.
West leads the five of clubs, which goes to the jack and your king.
How do you play?
Scroll down for analysis.




























Solution

This is a terrible contract, if you decide to try to make it, then you must cross to the spade ace, cash your top hearts and then play on diamonds for six tricks.
The correct way to play the diamonds is to start with the eight which works against East holding Kx or singleton K.  If you start with the five the suit will be blocked if East has Kx, if you start with the jack then you can't make six tricks if East has singleton K.

However, it is probably prudent to accept that you are not going to make this contract and that the other players are likely to be in equally bad or worse contracts.
Neil Thomas wisely played a diamond to the jack at trick two, which should have been one down, but the defence went badly astray and he eventually emerged with a rather fortunate ten tricks.


The full deal was


Dealer South
S
A97
   
Game All
H
AK10854
   
    D J85
   
    C 3
   
S
Q63
    S
K102
H
QJ97
    H
762
D
109
    D
K2
C
AQ85
    C
J9764
    S
J854
   
    H

   
    D
AQ7643
   
    C
K102