Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Game all; dealer South
North
4A J 10
!J 9 8 6 3
#K J 4
2K 5
West East
49 7 5 2 4Q 8
!4 !A 2
#9 6 5 #A Q 10 8 3
2Q J 10 9 6 28 4 3 2
South
4K 6 4 3
!K Q 10 7 5
#7 2
2A 7
The adverse cards were not well placed for declarer (and East defended well!), but he judged matters neatly to land a vulnerable game on a deal where it would have been easy to go down.
South opened 1!, North raised directly to game to end the auction, and West made his natural lead of the 2Q against the contract of 4!.
Declarer made an intelligent start by winning in hand and crossing to the 2K before starting trumps with the lead of the jack. The club suit had been eliminated and, if East had started with the singleton !A, he would have been end-played and forced to lead either a spade or a diamond to South's advantage.
Furthermore, East might play low with the ace and another trump, after which a second round of trumps catches him as before.
East passed the test when he went in with the ace of trumps and made the safe trump exit. This left South still needing a winning guess in either spades or diamonds. It looked tempting to try the diamonds first, but a wrong view (and there was no right one) would still leave him with the spade problem.
Instead, declarer played off the 4K, and followed by finessing the jack. If this lost, he could still try the diamonds and - here was his extra edge - although East won with the 4Q, he had no spades left and had either to lead a diamond or to concede a ruff and discard.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments