Jimmy Sez #3
A good declarer must use all the information he can get from the opponents bidding, good card count and signals by the opponents to bring home the difficult hands. Look at the following hand that occurred in early May. I was South.
S- 10 6
H- A K 9 3
D- A Q 4
S- J 9 5 4 C- Q 8 7 4 S- Q 8 7
H- 10 6 2 H- J
D- 6 5 3 2 D- K J 7
C- 10 6 S- A K 3 2 C- A K J 9 5 2
H- Q 8 7 5 2
Bidding D- 10 9 8
N E S W C- 3
2H 3C 4H P
P P
If all goes well 4 Hearts will roll if I can hold my losers to at most 1 Club and 1 or 2 Diamonds. If Hearts break 2-2 then I can ruff both Spade losers and perhaps make 5 odd. The bidding by the opponents however, indicates that this hand might not be quite that easy. East has come in at the 3 level so she must have good Clubs and perhaps all the remaining high cards. The Club ten is ducked and the six is covered by the eight and nine then trumped. The lead of the Heart Ace reveals the J. East is known to have six Clubs therefore it is likely that she only has one Heart. I lead a Spade to the Ace and the Diamond 10 finesse is lost to the Jack. Now the Club King must be ruffed with the Queen to prevent an over-ruff. Now I successfully finessed for the Heart 10 and drew the remaining trumps and came to my hand with the Spade King bringing this position.
S-
H- 3
D- A Q
S- J 9 C- Q S-Q
H- H-
D- 6 5 D- K 7
C- S- 3 2 C- A
D- 9 8
C-
At this point I could have taken a losing finesse but I saw the way to throw East in. I ruffed the Spade deuce and played the Queen of Clubs discarding the losing Spade three and East had to give me the contract by leading into the Ace-Queen of Diamonds.