Auto-pilot kicks in : kick him out!

You are East, the declarer in 4♠ after the following sequence:

North	East	South	West
Pass	1♠	Pass	2♣
Pass	2♥	Pass	3♦ (1)
Pass	3NT (2)	Pass	4♠ (3)
Pass	Pass	Pass

 

(1)    Fourth suit forcing to elicit further information. Game forcing.

(2)    Suggests a diamond stop – but what else?

(3)    Might have passed

Your left hand opponent, South, leads the ♥8 and you see:

♠AQJ	♠K9752
♥A2	♥KQJ7
♦J843	♦Q5
♣K1086	♣75

How do you plan the play?

Auto-pilot kicks in: win with the ♥A, cash three rounds of trumps, cross back to ♥K, draw the remaining trump (if one is outstanding), cash heart winners and lead towards the ♣K. If the ace is onside, you make ten tricks. Easy. Move on to the next board.

Of course, this line implicitly assumes that spades are no worse than 4-1.

But what if they are not? Can you still make 4♠ if spades are 5-0? Well quite possibly - but probably not if you play like that.

4♠ always needs the ♣K onside and taking that finesse early gives you an important extra chance. To see why, look at the full deal.

At our table, South did not lead a heart, but instead fired off with ♣A and another club. Declarer, Julian Wightwick, showed neatly how to cope with the 5-0 spade break. Rising with the club king, he cashed the ♠A, revealing the bad split. Then barely pausing for breath, he continued with ♥A, ♥K, heart ruffed with ♠Q, club ruff, another heart ruffed in dummy and led a fourth club. North was helpless for this was now the position (rotated for convenience).

	♠None
	♥None
	♦J843
	♣6 (led)
♠None		♠10864
♥9		♥None
♦A762		♦K
♣J		♣None
	♠K97
	♥None
	♦Q5
	♣None

Whether he ruffed small or discarded, declarer could (over-) ruff and get off lead with a diamond. Left with ♠K9 over the ♠108, he was sure to make two more tricks and his contract.

So, going back to the original problem, if you win the first trick with the ♥K and lead a club, there is no defence. If South ducks, allowing your king to score, you must play a second club immediately to establish communications. North may win this second round of clubs and lead a trump but he has no second entry to play a second round of trumps prematurely.

It is true that in following this line there is a small risk that you will establish a cross-ruff situation for the defence - but is that likely on the bidding and opening lead?