WHEN YOU CAN SEE THE CARDS, IT'S EASY
Joey Adams, a comedian, said, “It’s very easy to be witty tomorrow, after you get a chance to do some research and rehearse your ad libs.”
It's very easy to make your contract tomorrow, after you get a chance to do some research and find out where the opponents’ cards lie.
This deal is an example. Six spades is easy to make after a quick glance at the full layout. But what should one do without Xray vision?
In the auction, East psyched three spades over North’s takeout double. However, South, Yvonne Wiseman from England, doubled twice for penalty, then bid four spades. North happily jumped to six spades.
We have seen that we can take a diamond finesse at trick two, draw trumps ending in hand, lead a second diamond and claim when the king appears. We lose only one heart. That is a reasonable line of play, but if the diamond finesse loses, a club return from East would strand us in the dummy.
Better is to take the heart finesse at trick two. If it wins, ruff the club three, take the spade acequeen and heart ace, ruff a heart, draw the last trump and try diamonds for an overtrick. Here, the heart finesse loses and, say, a club is returned. South ruffs in the dummy, cashes the top trumps, plays a heart to the useful 10, draws the missing trump and takes the diamond finesse.
Wiseman felt sure that East had the heart king, so she ruffed the club three at trick two, cashed the spade ace-queen and led a low heart from the board. East had no answer. Copyright United Feature Syndicate (Asia Features)