12 English Bridge December 2016 www.ebu.co.uk

West North East South

1NT Pass

2® 2t Pass 3NT

All Pass

P

laying teams, East opens 1NT (12-14) and

South passes. West bids 2®, Stayman, and

North bids 2t which is passed by East. What

action would you take with the South cards?

It is hard to believe that you have such a good

hand given all the bidding that is going on, however

you must believe partner to have a fair hand with a

good suit to come in in this exposed position. The

West hand could be very weak with both majors and

be hoping to scramble to a better contract.

Vulnerable at teams you don't want to be missing

any games so it is a fair gamble to try 3NT, expecting

to be able to use partner's suit as a source of tricks.

West leads the ™7. How do you plan the play?

Partner's hand is far from disappointing, and if

you have five diamond tricks you can come to nine

tricks, provided that you retain an entry to dummy.

Your only problem will come if East holds all four

outstanding diamonds. In order to cater for this you

will need to begin with a low diamond from

dummy. West discards a heart, and East switches to

the queen of spades, which you win and West

follows with the eight. You duck another diamond

and East continue with the jack of spades. What do

you do now? This is where you have got to:

Discovery Plays by Heather Dhondy

Heather's Hints

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Game All. Dealer North

´ 7 4 3

™ A

t A K J 9 4 2

® Q 5 2

´ A K 5

™ Q 10 9 5

t 8 7 6

® A 10 3

N

W E

S

Game All. Dealer North

´ 7 4

™ -

t A K J 9

® Q 5 2

´ K 5

™ Q 10 9

t 8

® A 10 3

N

W E

S

You should win this trick because, after cashing

the diamonds, you will want to exit with your

remaining spade and hope to collect two club tricks

in the end game. What do you know about East's

points? There are only thirteen missing, so West has

at most one jack. Therefore you know that West's

lead must have been second highest from small

cards. If East holds the king and jack of clubs, he

will quickly dispose of his remaining spade on the

diamonds in order to allow his partner to gain the

lead when you exit with your spade. In this way he

can get a club through from his partner and prevent

himself from being end-played.

If, however, West holds the ®J, both defenders

will need to hang on to two clubs and therefore they

will only have two winners to cash before opening

up the clubs for you.

This was the full deal: