Dealer
: West
Vuln : Both |
HAND
OF THE WEEK #43
Revealing Discards by Matthew
Granovetter
|
Archives
of all back
issues of all daily
columns are available
with Bridgetoday.com
membership (which
also includes 12
issues of Bridge
Today Magazine,
100 archive issues
of Bridge Today
Digest Online, and
one Bridge Today
University course).
Click
here for
further details |
|
West
probably has 2-1-5-5 shape. If he held
2-1-4-6, he probably
would have discarded
two clubs on the second and third rounds
of
hearts. If he has 2-1-5-5, you can make the
contract by
eliminating clubs (ace, king and
ruff one) and then ducking
a diamond. As long
as East's singleton is the jack, queen
or king,
there's no defense. Either East wins and gives
you
a ruff-sluff, or West plays the king of
diamonds and is endplayed.
Notice
that if East returns the queen of
diamonds at trick two or
three, you can make
he hand by winning, eliminating clubs,
drawing
trumps and throwing East back in with a heart;
on
the third round of hearts you discard a
diamond, and East
is endplayed.
If
you thought West started with 2-1-4-6
shape, you can make
the contract a different
way. You duck a diamond before touching
clubs, and then lead all
your trumps to
squeeze West. For this reason, on the actual
hand,
West (on a high level) should
have tried
to fool declarer by discarding two clubs.
Have
a nice weekend!
|