BRIDGE MASTERCLASS

WESt opened 3 ♥ after which you, South, have become declarer in 6 ♣ and West leads the ♣ J. Plan the play. tHE vital thing here is to protect the heart situation and also the fact that, once the ♦ a has been knocked out, there is a losing diamond.

it is very possible that the opposing trumps are divided 3-1 and, once you have no trumps left in dummy, the situation is open to disaster.

all that’s necessary for success is to make sure of establishing spades before there are no trumps in dummy. So you win the opening lead and immediately take the spade finesse by leading the

♠ J. if this loses, no lead can damage your chances. You have trumps to cope with a heart return and the ♦ a to cope with a diamond. after taking a heart ruff, you draw the remaining trumps and get two discards on the established spades.

if the spade finesse wins, West is marked with ♠ K, though a wily East might skilfully hold up his king. Either way, you must play one more round of trumps before repeating the spade finesse. PETER DONOVAN