| ♠ 3 2 | |
| ♥ Q 9 4 3 | |
| ♦ K | |
| ♣ K Q 10 9 3 2 | |
| ♠ A Q J 6 4 | |
| ♥ J | |
| ♦ A 9 5 2 | |
| ♣ A 8 7 |
This is slightly modified from a hand I played on Saturday. LHO opened 1♠, RHO passes, and you wind up in 3N. ♠10 led, RHO shows out, pitching a diamond. When you play a club to the king, everyone follows.
How do you play?
Assuming LHO has the HAK I can play DK and a H intending to arrive at a three cards ending, north having S3-HQ9 and south holding SAQ-Dx.
ReplyDeleteNow unless LHO has unguarded S I can play a H having LHO present me with the last two tricks.
The trap is – I think – that one must play a H after unblocking the DK rather than playing CA, DA and C winners else we arrive at a four cards ending similar to the one above with one extra H at both hands.
The difference, however, is that provided LHO has started life with 3 Ds he can now discard one of the H honors and hold on to SKx-HA-Dx while RHO keeps 2Ds.
Playing as suggested might result in making just nine tricks if the H honors are split with RHO having the HT as well but I believe the risk is well worth it.
Finally, I don't see a way to 11 tricks if the H honors are split.