Bridge - The Scotsman 21/04/2012

WHEN Plan A lets us down it may be possible to fall back on Plan B, but we may have to think ahead. East’s overcall is lower end of the range, but in a team match West is well worth a pot at 3NT.

North leads the seven of hearts and South plays the queen.

A duck would lead to a swift one or two down, so West wins the king. How should he play from here?

Since North has at least four hearts ready to cash you must take nine tricks without losing the lead. That will be easy if diamonds produce six tricks – you can just cash two top clubs.

You might just play diamonds in traditional fashion, starting with the ace, the high card in the short hand so as not to block the suit. But what if diamonds break 4-1? If North shows out on the second round you have just three diamond tricks and one heart.

There is a back-up plan: you might make five clubs if North has the queen. But to make five club tricks you need to start with a low club from hand to the jack, then cash the ace, using the king as an entry to hand for the long clubs.

That will not be possible if we have already played ace and king of diamonds.

It is quite likely that North has the queen of clubs – after all, South passed his opening bid and has already shown up with the queen of hearts. So should we perhaps play clubs before diamonds so that we make our contract whenever either suit is kind?

It is not necessary to decide which suit to bank on yet. Test diamonds by playing low to the king and back to the ace. If everybody follows you can cross to the king of clubs to take the rest of the diamonds.

But if North shows out you are in the right hand to play clubs to advantage.