BRIDGE MASTERCLASS

How do you play west in 6NT, after North leads ♠ 6? I WAGERED that no one would find the winning line on this at the table — especially at Pairs.

But I’m sure that some of our astute readers have mastered the planning process outlined yesterday and will spot the solution. You have ten top winners and probably two or three more in clubs. So what can possibly go wrong?

The normal line will be to win the lead with ♠ A and run the ♣ J — it doesn’t matter if this loses to North’s queen — unless South shows out! There is only a 2 per cent chance of North holding all five clubs, but the super-safe declarers would cater for it.

To guarantee 12 tricks, forgetting about the overtrick, you need to lead twice towards dummy’s clubs.

The correct line is to win ♠ A, cross to ♦ A and play ♣ 2; North will duck so you win the knave and return to hand with ♦ Q and repeat the process. This time, it doesn’t serve North to hold up his queen. You’ll win his next lead in dummy, cash ♣ 10 and return to hand with ♠ K. The other hands are: North: ♠ xxx ♥ 10 x ♦ 10 xx ♣ Q 9 xxx. South: ♠ Jxxx ♥ Q J xx ♦ xxxxx ♣ -. As soon as ♣ J is led from dummy the contract is doomed.