Bridge - The Scotsman 19/05/2012

Playing a five-card major, strong no-trump system you open 1D.

North overcalls in hearts and partner’s negative double promises four spades.

Your 2S shows a minimum opening bid, but partner fancies the game bonus.

North leads the ace of hearts. South signals with a discouraging two, and North switches to the jack of diamonds. What is your plan?

At the table, declarer counted four spades and two top diamonds. Knocking out the ace of clubs would produce three club tricks, allowing him to discard two diamonds, and a heart ruff in dummy would be the tenth trick.

He drew trumps in three rounds, then led the jack of clubs. North played the nine, denying the ten and showing an even number.

So South took the ace on the first round and returned a heart through the queen.

Declarer ruffed the third heart with dummy’s last trump, but the clubs were blocked and he no longer had an entry to dummy.

He overtook the jack of clubs with the queen in case the 9,8 dropped: when they did not he was one down. Where did he go wrong?

All that was required was to foresee the blockage and tackle clubs sooner – after no more than two rounds of trumps.

Whatever South does, there is a trump entry to dummy after clubs are unblocked.