To be a competent declarer you must look ahead and anticipate
problems. Take a look at this hand where the declarer failed to
see what could go wrong.
Scoring: Matchpoints (Pairs)
Hand #38
Dlr
N
Vul
E/W
A7
963
J32
Q10987
932
874
AQ98
A43
J654
A2
K1072
J65
KQ108
KQJ105
65
K2
West
North
East
South
Pass
Pass
1
Pass
2
All Pass
BIDDING: South had a nice
hand but took no action over his partner's raise.
PLAY: With no attractive
lead, West attacked with the ace of clubs. Even though his
partner discouraged with the five, West continued with a second
round. Declarer counted five possible losers: 1 spade, 1 heart, 2
diamonds, and 1 club. He saw he could ruff a spade in dummy and
possibly discard a diamond on dummy's good club. Since it was
likely the opponents would switch to diamonds when they regained the
lead, declarer immediately went to dummy's spade ace and discarded a
diamond on the queen of clubs. Next he played three rounds of
spades trumping the last one in dummy and then led trumps.
East won the second heart and returned his last spade for West to
ruff. Declarer made nine tricks but this was a pairs event and
overtricks were important. Declarer erred by not playing his
three top spades before
ruffing his fourth one with dummy's nine of
hearts. He should have realized leaving a fourth spade in his
hand exposed him to a ruff. Careful play would have meant ten
tricks for an excellent
result.
Another item to note is the opening lead. It is usually wrong to
lead an unsupported ace. You can see that any other lead allows
the defenders to cash their four tricks before declarer can establish a
discard on the club suit.
