Bold Bid, Expert Play

(1) 15-17
(2) Transfer to hearts

You blast into game despite the strong 1NT opening on your left. West leads the ♥K. As expected, dummy is anemic. How will you get to 10 tricks?

Solution

Declarer ruffed and drew trumps with the top three spades, noting along the way that West discarded the ♥8 on the third spade winner. The bidding suggested that the 15 missing high-card points would be on his left, so declarer played the ♣A and ♣K in the hope that an honor would fall. The failure of either the ♣Q or ♣J to appear helped declarer place West with four clubs.

Declarer then led a club to put West on play. After taking his two club winners, West had to lead a red suit, something declarer knew would not be to the defense’s advantage. West did not want to lead a diamond, so he played the ♥A next. Declarer discarded the ♦4 from hand. This left West still on lead with only red-suit cards remaining. West had the choice of leading a diamond from his king into declarer’s ♦A Q or a heart to dummy’s now-established queen. Either way, declarer had 10 tricks: six spades, two clubs and two tricks in the red suits. The full deal: