Solution: DSBA Declarer Problem of the Month

DSBA Web Page Declarer Problem of the Month

May, 1999

This month's hand is from a recent OKBridge IMP tournament.

Dealer: South
Vulnerable: N-S

	NORTH K 2 Q J 6 5 Q 4 3 2 J 7 5


	SOUTH A K 9 A J 6 5 A K Q 9 8 6

AUCTION
SOUTH	WEST	NORTH	EAST
1	1	Dbl	Pass
2	Pass	2NT	Pass
3	Pass	4	Pass
6	Pass	Pass	Pass

West leads the Q. Plan the play.

Solution

There are a few possibilities for coming to twelve tricks:

1) Play West for the singleton K. You can pitch the fourth-round diamond loser on a high spade.

2) Play east for the Kx. A simple finesse will see you home.

But, given that West's overcall almost certainly marks him with the A, you have a much better choice than either of these. Cash one high trump, and then lead the 9. If West wins, you can discard three diamonds from hand on the QJ and the K. If West ducks, win the Q, discard the K on the K, and then rely on bringing the diamond suit in for 3 tricks (by playing a diamond to the ACE as a safety play... this will succeed any time the diamonds are 3-2 or when the king is singleton).

The full deal:

	NORTH K 2 Q J 6 5 Q 4 3 2 J 7 5
WEST Q J T 7 5 3 A T 3 K T 4 2			EAST 9 8 6 4 8 7 4 2 T 9 8 7 3
		SOUTH A K 9 A J 6 5 A K Q 9 8 6

One final note: you should only play ONE round of trumps before leading the

9, because if the trumps are 3-1 (as in the diagram) and you play two rounds first, then when you lead the heart, West can win and exit with a third trump, and you no longer have the communication to unblock the heart suit and return to the winners in dummy. Also, you may think that since the

K dropped, that you do not need to play for the so-called Morton's Fork Coup of leading the

9. However, the Morton's Fork is superior, as it will succeed in almost any case where West has the

A; in the unlikely event that East holds the

A, you are no worse off than when you started, as you can still guess the diamonds for no losers anyway (if that was possible originally).

Thanks to Andy Kaufman of Smyrna, DE, for submitting this month's hand.

Click here to send questions or comments regarding this month's hand.

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