In Need of Plan B

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

After partner opens the bidding and shows three-card spade support with his double of West’s 2 bid, you are quick to get to the good slam. West starts with the Q. How are you going to get to 12 tricks on this deal?

Solution

After the opening lead was made, declarer paused to form a plan. He counted 11 top tricks on a reasonable trump division. One possibility was to try to set up a long diamond in dummy, which would likely require trumps to split 3-2 and diamonds 4-3. Declarer decided that a better shot was to ruff a heart high in dummy and finesse the ♠9 after doing so. In fact. this offers over twice the chance of making the contract compared to trying to set up diamonds.

At trick two, declarer led a low trump. When West discarded a heart, declarer had to reconsider his options. After winning the trick with the dummy’s queen of trumps, declarer played a heart to the ace, then cashed three rounds of clubs. After throwing a heart on the ace of diamonds, declarer ruffed a diamond low and exited with a heart. West won the trick with the 8 and exited with a low heart. As planned, declarer ruffed this with dummy’s ♠K, East under-ruffing by force. In the three-card ending, declarer had the ♠A J 9 . Any lead from dummy ensured that he scored all of the remaining tricks. Declarer made five trumps, the A, a heart ruff, two diamonds and three clubs for a total of 12 tricks. The full deal:

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

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