Ashes To Ashes

2nd November – Board 4. Game All. Dealer West.

It’s always so irritating when a good hand goes to waste but to be fair the defence to 3NT on the hand shown below shouldn’t be too hard to find.

	North: S Q 10 6 5 H K 9 8 D K 8 3 C K J 7
West: S J 8 2 H 10 5 2 D Q 9 6 2 C 6 4 2		East: S A K 9 7 H A Q 4 D A J 7 C A Q 3
	South: S 4 3 H J 7 6 3                    D 10 5 4 C 10 9 8 5

West	North	East	South
No	No	2C/2D	No
2D/2H	No	2NT	No
3NT	End

Everyone would surely end up in 3NT and South has the most obvious club lead in the world but even though this gives declarer two tricks in that suit he is still a long way from home. The best bet is to play the jack of diamonds from hand but North should not be fooled, letting the jack win. After all he knows declarer has the ace from the bidding and assuming South gives a count signal of the four, showing an odd number, then it is obvious what declarer is up to. If North mistakenly wins this trick then declarer will make two spades, two hearts via a finesse, three diamonds and two clubs. Stuck in hand however, declarer will ultimately concede defeat. (I see that Deep Finesse, the program that analyses these hands from a double dummy viewpoint, shows that 3NT can be made. See if you can work it out.)