BRIDGE MASTERCLASS

YOu are South, declarer in 4 ♥ , West having intervened in clubs. West leads the ♠ K. Plan the play. You can see that you have a certain spade loser and may well lose to the ♥ k if it is off side.

The acute danger, though, is that if east gains the lead he will switch to his partner’s bid suit, clubs, through your ♣ k, causing you to lose another two tricks.

east, therefore, is the danger hand. how can you keep him out of the lead?

The answer is to duck the first spade lead. Win the second spade and take the heart finesse. If West wins, what can he do?

You’ve time to draw the remaining trumps and discard losing clubs on the good diamonds in dummy. The best the defence can do is to take one spade, ♥ k and

♣ A, if they have the forethought to cash it quickly.