Seeing through cards #15

Dealer South. None Vul.


Against 4♠ West lead the ♥Q and East played the ♥10.

1. Will you win or duck?
2. You decide to duck and West continued with the ♥J, which East overtook with the ♥ K. Will you win or play low?
3. This time you win the ♥A. How will you tackle the trump suit?

1. Will you win or duck?
   You can afford to duck this trick, as there is no risk for ruff from opponent's side.


2. You decide to duck and West continued with the ♥J, which East overtook with the ♥ K. Will you win or play low?
   This time you must win the trick. There is a chance that East has 5 cards heart and if you hold up, West might ruff the 3rd heart. Also, if you don't win, there is a chance that East will switch to clubs and if you lose a trump trick, opponents will also cash the club (at trick 2, if East plays a club, you will still be able to throw a heart loser on the 4th diamond).


3. This time you win the ♥A. How will you tackle the trump suit?
   This hand requires careful play and many players will go wrong here.
   
   If you play ♠A and another spade to the ♠J, and the spade finesse fails, you risk losing another trump, even though trumps are 3-2! West wins the ♠Q, plays a 3rd heart, East wins and plays the 4th heart, promoting partner's ♠9. That way you lose 2 hearts and 2 spades.
   
   Since you can afford to lose one spade, you should play more carefully: start with the ♠K and continue with a low spade to the ♠A. This line will prevent losing 2 spade tricks on any 3-2 split. It will also protect you against ♠Qxxx with East: If West doesn't follow to the 2nd round of spades, you are now in dummy to play a 3rd spade to the ♠J. After playing the ♠A, when both defenders follow, play a 3rd spade to West's ♠Q.
   
   Another common mistake on this hand can be to leave the ♠Q to the opponents and start playing on diamonds. Why? Because West can ruff the 3rd diamond, and you lose your entry to the 4th diamond. When you play the 3rd spade to West's ♠Q, 10 tricks are safe: 4 spades, 1 heart, 4 diamonds and 1 club (the club loser goes on the 4th diamond).

Things to remember:

1. Notice! After the heart lead, it is careless to think that if spades are 3-2, you are safe to lose only 1 spade trick by trying the spade finesse. When opponents have 1 more trump, you have just 1 trump higher than theirs and there is an exposed suit (+ they are on lead), there is a risk that they get a trump promotion.
   
2. On the above spade sequence: If you need 5 spade tricks, it is better to play ♠A and then low to the ♠J (better finesse than to try to drop ♠Qx). However, if you can afford 1 spade loser (like here) but not 2, you'd better protect yourself by playing ♠K and then low to the ♠A. That line will prevent trump promotion, will avoid 2 losers even if East has ♠Qxxx and will also score 5 spade tricks if any of the opponents has ♠Qx.
   
3. Another way to prevent opps from getting a trump promotion is to try to break communication between defenders so that one will not get the hand to play a suit, allowing his partner to ruff over declarer's hand (or dummy). Another way is to make sure that both hands have top cards, so that it will be possible to ruff over the defender:

	♠K2
♠1043		♠A
	♠QJ98765

Spade is trump and you can afford to lose only 1 trick. How will you play the spade suit, knowing that there is 1 more heart card out (with either West or East)?

Go to dummy, and play a LOW spade from there! If you play ♠K (or low to ♠K), East will win the ♠A, continue heart and the ♠10 will get promoted. But if you keep a top spade in both hands (by playing low to the ♠J), when opps win the ♠A (in either hand) and play the last heart you can overruff both ways.

4. Other sequences worth knowing:
   
   a.
   

   	♣A932
   	♣KJ54

   If you need 4 tricks, play ♣A and then low to the ♣J as best chance for 0 losers. If you need 3 tricks, play ♣K and then low to the ♣9 (also possible ♣K and then back to dummy and then low to the ♣J). This line will 100% guarantee no more than 1 loser:
   

   	♣A932
   ♣Q1076		♣8
   	♣KJ54

   If you play ♣A and then low to the ♣J, you will lose 2 tricks. But if you play ♣K and then low to the ♣9 you will lose no more than 1 trick: If West will play low, the ♣9 will score. If West will play the ♣10 - You win the ♣A, let the ♣9 lose to the ♣Q and promote the ♣J. If, when play low the the ♣9, West shows out (= East has ♣Q10xx), you change plans, win with the ♣A and play 3rd round to the ♣J. If the ♣9 loses to East at the 2nd round = clubs are 3-2 and 3rd club will fall on the ♣A.
   
   b.
   

   	♦KJ32
   ♦10965		♦Q8
   	♦A74

   Yes, same as "our" spades, but with 1 card less = Same line: If 4 tricks are needed, play ♦A and low to ♦J, hoping for ♦Qxx with West. If you need only 3 tricks, play ♦K, diamond to ♦A and low to the ♦J. That line will save you from 2 losers if East has ♦Qx.
   
   c.
   

   	♦QJ32
   ♦K1098		♦65
   	♦A74

   You need 3 tricks. Play ♦A and low to the ♦J. If the ♦J holds the trick, come back to hand and play another diamond to the ♦Q. No use to play ♦Q from dummy! If East has ♦K he will cover and you will always lose 2 tricks if the suit is 4-2 (whether ♦K with East or West).
   
   d.
   

   	♥AK1092
   ♥Q876		♥J5
   	♥43

   Duble finesse gives the best chance for 4 tricks: Play low to the ♥9 and after losing to the ♥J, come back to hand and finesse again to the ♥10, a much better chance then playing ♥ AK for a drop.
   
   e.
   

   	♥A10932
   ♥Q876		♥J5
   	♥K4

   Same as before? No! You don't have a double finesse situation here as you don't have 2 low cards in hand. Best is to play ♥AK and a 3rd heart, scoring 4 heart tricks if hearts 3-3 or if 1 side has an honor doubleton. If you try here ♥K and then low to the ♥ 9 - you will lose 2 tricks.
   
   f.
   

   	♠AJ9
   ♠K108		♠Q76
   	♠5432

   Play low to the ♠9, hoping the ♠10 is with West and that the ♠9 is high enough to pull an honor from East. Later play low to the ♠J, capturing West's ♠K. If you try low to the ♠J first - You will lose 2 tricks (=you need to hope then that West holds both, ♠KQ, 25%, while playing to the ♠9 will succeed if W has ♠Q10 or ♠K10).
   
   g.
   

   	♣Q932
   ♣K1087		♣6
   	♣AJ54

   Play low to the ♣J. That will bring 4 tricks if East has ♣Kx and 3 tricks if West has ♣K10xx: After the ♣J will lose to the ♣K, you will play the ♣A, and when East shows out, you can finesse the ♣9 next. If you play ♣Q at 1st - You will fail in both of the above.
   
   h.
   

   	♦K2
   ♦A10		♦J98
   	♦Q76543

   You need 5 tricks. The only hope is to find West with ♦Ax: Play low to the ♦ K and then low from both hands, hoping to drop West's ♦A.
   
5. Any time you hold 10xx, Jxx, Qx, 9xxx etc. - all these have a possibility for promotion:

a.

It seems that declarer has no heart losers (heart is the trump) but after ♣AK and 3rd club from East a heart trick is promoted whether declarer ruffs high or not.

b.

Again, defenders play ♣AK and this time a 3rd club is coming from West. If East ruffs with the ♥ J, West's ♥10 gets promoted.