Dealer
S EW Vul
A
deal from an online EBU duplicate.
After
West has overcalled in hearts you rebid one notrump
to show 12-14 points balanced. Partner raises
quantitatively to four notrump and you decline the
invitation with a minimum. West leads the nine
of diamonds, form a plan.
Scroll
down for solution
Solution
It is likely that West has the spade ace as well as the heart king for her overcall. You have five diamonds, four clubs and a heart trick. You can easily develop a trick in spades to make eleven, but can you make twelve? If
you play a spade towards the king at trick two, then
West cannot win the ace or else you make two spade
tricks, so she will duck.
Now
you hope that the original layout was as below.
Now
you can run off all your minor suit winners to reach
the following end position. Then you can exit
with a spade and West has to lead away from the
heart king to give you your twelfth trick and
probably a good score. Unfortunately West's
spades were AJ doubleton originally and twelve
tricks were easy so you score just above average on
the board.
|