Bridge - The Scotsman 30/07/12

By Liz McGowan
Published on 30/07/2012 02:12

Should you double when you think a contract is going one down? You may need to defend rather well!

South reached a thin 4H when he competed over the pre-empt and partner made a dubious raise. West led the king of diamonds to dummy’s ace. It looks natural to finesse the queen of hearts, cash the ace, then run clubs, expecting to lose two spades and a heart. But the double warns of a bad trump break – surely East has more than just ace-queen of spades. South won the diamond and led the jack of hearts, covered and won. Next he ran the nine of spades to the queen. East returned a diamond, ruffed. Now declarer sprang his trap, cashing two top clubs before leading the eight of spades to the ten, jack and ace. This was the position, with East on lead:

If he plays the ten of hearts, declarer ducks. Another heart allows him to finesse; a spade gives an entry to dummy to finesse hearts; a ruff and discard allows him to ruff in dummy, discard his remaining clubs on spades, and pick up East’s hearts by leading dummy’s last spade. Any other lead puts him in dummy to lead a heart, ducking when East splits his 109, to reach the same position.

There is a defence: East must cash both spades early to avoid the endplay.