IT ALL DEPENDS ON THE DEFENSE

In today's deal, South is in three no-trump, and West leads a low spade. How should declarer proceed if East (a) plays the queen, or (b) wins with the ace and returns the spade nine?

First, let us consider the situation when East plays the spade queen. Sometimes it is right to duck with K-J-x, but this isn't one of those positions. South should win with his spade king, cross to dummy with a club to the 10 and run the heart queen. The finesse loses, but West cannot hurt declarer. If he continues spades, South has a second stopper in the jack. If West shifts to a diamond, declarer wins with dummy's ace and cashes his nine tricks: one spade, three hearts, one diamond and four clubs.

What happens when East wins trick one with the spade ace and returns the spade nine? If South wins with his king and takes a losing red-suit finesse, here the opponents will cash enough spade tricks to beat the contract. The right play is to finesse the spade jack.

Yes, it loses to the queen and a spade comes back, but now declarer can run the diamond jack (or nine). If the finesse wins, he repeats the finesse and has a shot at an overtrick or two. If the finesse loses and East still has a spade left, that suit must have been 4-4 at the beginning, and South is safe. Here the finesse loses, but East cannot do better than switch to a heart. Declarer wins with his ace and claims 10 tricks: one spade, one heart, four diamonds and four clubs.

Phillip can be contacted via his website, bridgeforeveryone.com.