BRIDGE MASTERCLASS

THIS week, I’m giving you a slam contracts to play. They will all make, provided you make the sensible play at the key trick.

To start with, you are West in 6♥, and North leads ♠J. You can only go down here, if you lose a trick to ♦K, and fail to pick up the queen of trumps.

You can protect against this by using an elimination play. Win the lead, then cross to dummy, and cash ♣KQ and ♥A; return to hand with ♠K, cash ♣A, discarding a diamond, and ruff your last spade; now lead a trump from dummy, and finesse when South follows.

If the finesse loses, North will be endplayed, either to lead a diamond, or give you a ruff and discard.

If South shows out, you still finesse because you’ll then need an entry to dummy in order to take the diamond finesse.