BRIDGE JACK STOCKEN

West’s 3♣ was a weak jump overcall and North’s 4♣ promised a good raise to game in diamonds and first round control in clubs. 6♦ seemed like a good shot knowing that partner had five or six trumps.

Which suit would you have led from West’s hand against 6♦? West went for the standard lead of the ten of clubs which declarer trumped in dummy with the two of diamonds and led the jack of diamonds, won by West with the king.

West was not keen to open up a major suit so continued with a safe trump. Declarer won in hand with the queen of diamonds and looked to establish the spade suit so played the king of spades and another spade to the queen. Next came the ace of spades, declarer discarding the three of hearts from hand.

Declarer ruffed a spade loser in hand and then returned to dummy by ruffing the king of clubs, cashed the winning nine of spades and discarded the second losing heart, the four. 6♦ made and a shared top.

Give yourself full marks if you found the killer lead of the nine of hearts at trick one. Declarer has to win the ace and then pin his hopes on the losing diamond finesse which would result in two down.

An alternative line of play for declarer on a heart lead is to win the ace of hearts, cash the ace of diamonds and play out three winning spades, hoping spades were 3 – 3. That way two losing hearts could be discarded on winning spades.

Even if spades were 4 – 2, declarer could still make as long as the player with the fourth spade also had the outstanding king of diamonds. This line would not have worked here with West only having a doubleton spade and the winning king of diamonds.

I prefer the second line of play, as it also gains when either player has a singleton king of diamonds.