Monday afternoon March 17, 2008

Lead: king of diamonds.

Six spades by South went down two. Six hearts by South went down three. Six NT by North makes five and six, but only because the Easts didn't recognize they were in a Bath Coup situation. Should East continue with another diamond? If so, which one? East should resist the diamond lead and switch to anything else, preferably a club. Any diamond lead gives declarer two tricks in the suit; five spades, four hearts, two diamonds and a club. Any other lead after the king of diamonds coasts allows the defense to get a club trick at the end.

Monday afternoon March 17, 2008

Lead: ace of hearts

East must protect his king of diamonds and lead a club or a spade at trick 2. A club is best, which declarer wins in hand. Declarer must NOT draw the remaining piddly trumps, instead he must use the spades as entries to start a cross-ruff of hearts and diamonds. A spade to the board and a diamond to the ace. The spade queen is cashed followed by a heart ruffed with the 7. Declarer pitches the low diamond on the ace of spades and leads a third round of diamonds, trumped in hand with the ten. Back comes another heart to the jack of trumps, followed by the fourth round of diamonds trumped high with the ace. Declarer prays a bit at this point as he leads the eight of trumps to the board's queen. Both remaining trumps fall. Declarer now cashes the queen of diamonds, discarding the remaining heart in his hand and is left with nothing but the king of trumps.

Monday afternoon March 17, 2008.

Lead: king of diamonds.

After a lively competitive auction, West reaches an unlikely slam. Declarer trumps the opening diamond lead, draws trumps in three rounds, cashes the top spades and loses a spade In the end Declarer pitches his third club on the last of the board's spades and makes his slam without having to depend on a 50% finesse of the queen of clubs.

Friday evening March 21, 2008

Lead: ten of spades.

Nobody got to either six hearts or six diamonds tonight; one pair stopped at 5H probably because they were pushed to 4S. The spade bidder should keep on bidding, going down two doubled for 500 points vs a cold game/slam in two different suits, losing only the ace of hearts.

Saturday morning March 22, 2008

Lead: four of diamonds

Some Norths would open 2NT, however the hand didn't feel strong enough for 2NT even though it held 20 HCP; instead preferring to open a club. All that changed however when partner jumped to 2NT showing balance and 12-15 HCP. North's correct bid would be to jump to 4NT as a quantitative bid asking partner to go to 6NT with sufficient cards. In this case our North removed all decision-making from her partner and jumped to six.

After the diamond lead, eleven tricks are there and a 12th must be rounded up. West gets pressured early when she has to discard on declarer's spades. After the seven of diamonds, West has to either discard from the queen of hearts or the long club. A club discard is fatal and gives declarer the 12th trick early. Discarding a heart gives declarer a way to establish the 12th trick with a third heart, losing only to the jack.