Eradicate

Hand of the Week

Dlr:
South
Vul:
E-W
North
♠ K 7
10 8 6 5 3
K J 5 2
♣ Q 4
South
♠ A 6 3
A J 9 7 2
A 7 4
♣ 7 3
West North East South
1
Pass 3 Pass 4
All Pass

(1) Weak

South appreciated the value of having three aces rather than several queens, so he bid the game after his partner’s limit raise. How would you approach making 10 tricks against West’s lead of the ♠J?

View Solution

This contract seems to depend on holding your trump losers to one and relying on West to have the Q. If that was the only way to make 4, you wouldn’t be reading about this problem here. Suppose the full deal is something like this:

Dlr:
South
Vul:
E-W
North
♠ K 7
10 8 6 5 3
K J 5 2
♣ Q 4
West
♠ J 10 9 4
4
8 6 3
♣ A J 10 9 2
East
♠ Q 8 5 2
K Q
Q 10 9
♣ K 8 6 5
South
♠ A 6 3
A J 9 7 2
A 7 4
♣ 7 3

After taking the first trick with dummy’s ♠K, cross to hand with the ♠A and lead a club.

West will surely play low and dummy’s queen will be taken by East with his king. East cannot attack diamonds without losing a trick, so he shifts to a trump. You take this with the ace, ruff your spade, eliminating the suit, and lead a second club.

When West takes this and shifts to a diamond, you counter by winning it with the ace then playing a trump to endplay East. The return of a black suit concedes a ruff-and-discard while the alternative is into to lead a diamond into dummy’s K-J tenace. So, despite the Q being wrong, the game can sometimes be made!

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