BRIDGE MASTERCLASS

You are South declarer in 6 ♥ , against which West leads the ♥ J. You put up dummy’s ♥ Q, and East drops the ♥ 8. What is your best line of play? This week i have set queries on deciding which way to play a difficult slam contract. You have no guarantee of success, but the point is to give yourself the best possible chance. here it is likely that hearts are going to break 3-1, and your best bet is to try it out by next winning with the ♥ A. if East shows out, which means that West has a third trump, you take a simple finesse in spades. if it is West who shows out, you must take a ruffing finesse. The point is that the player, if any, holding the third trump must not be allowed to get in to lead it — you need two trumps in dummy to cope with the club losers. Of course, if trumps break 2-2, your worries are over as you can ruff two clubs in dummy, and take either a straight spade finesse or a ruffing finesse if the cards that have fallen make that more likely.