Hunters Hill Bridge Club Inc.

It’s always a good idea, as declarer, to pause before playing to the first trick and ask yourself “what could go wrong?” That way, you will be better equipped to deal with any surprises. This interesting deal comes from the 2004 Lindfield Super Congress. Dealer is South; both sides vulnerable.
West . . . . . . . . . East

AJ7642 K AKJ8 A5

K5 Q8653 9 KT963

With the opponents silent, West opens 2♣ and shows spades, East shows hearts and clubs, and the final contract is 4♠. North leads the ace of hearts, and switches to ♦2. South plays ♦Q and your ace takes the trick. So far, the defence has been more than helpful. The hand looks cold for eleven tricks, even twelve if trumps behave. Could anything go wrong?

At trick 3 you play ♠2, ♠3 from North, king from dummy, and South discards a small diamond. Oh, dear! With QT98 of trumps still sitting over you, dreams of +680 vanish. You will be happy to make your contract. What is your plan to avoid the loss of three trump tricks in addition to the ace of hearts?

First of all, when you discover these bad trump breaks, Don’t Panic. Pause to gather your thoughts.

Second, stop drawing trumps.

You can still succeed if you can endplay North in trumps. To do so, you must reduce both your and North’s trumps to the same number – three or two, removing all his safe exit cards in the process.

Fortunately, you have plenty of tricks outside trumps. Try this line of play.

Trick 4: ♥Q from dummy, discarding a diamond
Trick 5: Ruff a small heart in hand.
Trick 6: ♣A
Trick 7: ♣5 to dummy’s king
Trick 8: Ruff a club in hand
Trick 9: ♦K, ruffed by North with ♠8
Trick 10 ♥J from North, which you ruff in hand
Trick 11: ♦J, ruffed by North with ♠9

At this point North is helpless, holding only ♠QT of trumps and having to lead into your AJ. Ten tricks made. Your partner is astonished. You didn’t even need that extra diamond trick, except to reduce North’s trumps. It was a red herring. This was the full deal.

	QT983 AJT4 2 874
AJ7642 K AKJ8 A5		K5 Q8653 9 KT963
	972 QT76543 QJ2

The well-known expert sitting North told declarer (afterwards) that no way in the world could this contract be made, and she should phone him, in the middle of the night if necessary, if she could prove otherwise. We decided to let him sleep in peace.