BRIDGE MASTERCLASS

Playing Teams, East raised your 1 ♠ opener to 2 ♠ , and South overcalls 3 ♣ . you bid on pre-emptively to 3 ♠ , and are allowed to play there. How do you plan the play after South has cashed two top clubs and switched to ♠ 2?

The bidding makes it clear that South should have at least six clubs, and probably a singleton trump; South didn’t double initially, so north should have five or six points.

You have certain heart losers and a loser in diamonds — unless you can establish a heart winner in dummy to discard a diamond.

To succeed, you need to find north with three hearts including at least two from the AKJ and 10.

So you win the trump lead in hand and run ♥ 6. Let’s assume South wins with the knave and leads a diamond, you win in hand again and run ♥ 9 unless north puts up the ten. South will win again and lead another diamond to dummy. if your plan has worked, north’s top honour will drop when you ruff a heart high. You draw trumps ending in dummy to take your discard.