West
J 9 6 4
A 10
7 6 3
Q 5
Q J |
East
10 7 3
K Q 8
10 9
8 7 4
8 3 |
Clearly
the club finesse is the percentage play (restricted
choice and the light opening suggests this). But wait. If
West has a singleton queen of clubs, there is no rush to
finesse. Instead it will be safe to cash another spade
trick, return to dummy with a diamond lead and play the
king of spades, to discard a heart. Then take the club
finesse.
You
lose the battle in trumps but win the war of the
contract when the queen of diamonds comes down
doubleton. You lose one heart trick and one club trick
to score 600.
When
this hand was played two weeks ago in the final of
the Spingold Teams, declarer had a blind spot, playing a
second round of clubs for a finesse before taking the heart
discard on the king of spades. West won the jack of clubs
and led the ace of hearts and a heart to set the hand.
At
the other table, North was declarer in 3NT after South
opened 2,
showing a club suit, 11-15 points. East led a
diamond and declarer won and guessed to attack clubs by
first leading the 2 to the king, so he couldn't go wrong.
THE
END
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