BRIDGE MASTERCLASS

You are West, declarer in 3NT and North leads ♦ K, which you duck and South plays ♦ 6; he then switches to a low club. Plan the play. USUALLY, I hope, you base your line of play solely on the evidence of the bidding auction.

Today, there is no such evidence (bid 1NT3NT), and you need to construct the opponents hands from the cards they play. you have eight top ticks and a ninth if one of the black suits breaks 3-3 but assume they don’t (in line with the odds). you win ♣ A and cash ♠ AK, noting that North discards ♥ 2; when you next play a club to the king, South this time discards a low diamond.

you take a deep heart finesse, which North wins with the knave and returns a heart, to which South follows low. We have only reached trick seven, but already you have a complete count of both opponents’ hands including their high cards. Plenty of time to hatch a devious plan for an overtrick, now that your contract is secured. you will see tomorrow how it helps to be able to picture the hands (North was 1-5-6-1 and South 5-2-1-5) and the solution is quite clever.