Take All Your Chances 12
| North | ||
| ♠ K J 10 | ||
| ♥ 10 4 2 | ||
| ♦ J 5 3 | ||
| ♣ A Q J 5 | ||
| South | ||
| ♠ A Q 9 8 4 3 | ||
| ♥ A K J 5 | ||
| ♦ Q 8 2 | ||
| ♣ — |
With both sides vulnerable, West opens 1♦, North and East pass, you double, partner responds 3♣, too strong to make a forced 2♣ response. You bid 3♠, forcing, and partner raises to 4♠. Incidentally, when making or responding to a takeout double, devalue jacks and queens in any suit or suits the opponents have bid unless responding in notrump or having a death wish.
West leads the ♦A K and a diamond. East trumps the third diamond and exits with a low heart. Spades are 2-2. What is your plan? (Notice that the jack and queen of diamonds were worthless).
12 HCP are missing and West, the opening bidder, is a heavy favorite to have all 12. Win the ♥A, cross to a spade, play the ♣A, discarding a heart, and trump a club. Return to dummy with a spade and trump another club. If the king appears, use the ♣Q to discard a second heart. If the king doesn’t appear, try to drop the ♥Q in the West hand. Why finesse into a player who is known to have the queen?
Tip #1 When the bidding tells you that a particular defender must have a particular card, play that defender for that card even if it means going against the odds in the play of that suit.
Tip #2 Assume an opening bidder has at least 12 HCP unless the opener is known to have a distributional hand in which case 10 or 11 HCP is possible.
| ♠ K J 10 | ||
| ♥ 10 4 2 | ||
| ♦ J 5 3 | ||
| ♣ A Q J 5 | ||
| ♠ 5 2 | ♠ 7 6 | |
| ♥ Q 8 7 | ♥ 9 6 3 | |
| ♦ A K 10 6 4 | ♦ 9 7 | |
| ♣ K 10 9 | ♣ 8 7 6 4 3 2 | |
| ♠ A Q 9 8 4 3 | ||
| ♥ A K J 5 | ||
| ♦ Q 8 2 | ||
| ♣ — |
