Skip to main content

Where is the sixth winner?!

For some reasons, the blog hasn't been updated since the end of April. And now I'm back, HAHAHA!

This is the deal in our weekly online training.

Board 1
Vul: None
Dealer: North
North    East    South    West
 Pass       1♣       1♢         1♠*
 Pass       2♡       Ap

1♠: take out X
Lead: ♢K

Trick     North    East    South    West
   1          ♢T        ♢A       ♢K         ♢4
   2                      ♡Q         ?

You lead ♢K and the declarer wins with the ♢A. Then the declarer plays ♡Q quickly. Now how to defend? Assuming that you duck on the first round and win with ♡A on the next round. You partner follows ♡8 and ♡5 respectively.

What we do first is to estimate the points and the distributions of the declarer's hand. He might hold 3♠, 4♡, 3♢, 3♣ or 2-4-3-4. You could win 2♢ and 1♡ now. The signal from your partner shows that he hold ♠AQ at least. Will you cash ♢ certainly? If you do that, where is the sixth winner?

If declarer is 2-4-3-4, the contract is icy. So the declarer must have 3♠ and the sixth winner will come from ruffing the third ♠ or through ♠ twice. So you should shift ♠ at once and ♢ is the connection between defenders.

Pay attention please: For North, it's still a challenge. If North holds ♠AQX, he should play ♠AQ before shifting ♢ to prevent blocking.

The full deal:
Board 1
Vul: None
Dealer: North

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Premier League Final China 2018: Get professional! How a declarer became a defender

This deal happened in the last segment of The Premier League Final China 2018, PD Times VS Hengzhou. Board 8 Dealer: West Vul: None West     North     East     South Lorenzin J.Li        Bessis    Z.Fu Pass       Pass       Pass      1♣* Pass        1♢*       Pass      1NT Pass        2♡*         X          XX*  3♢          3♡*       Pass       4♠  AP 1♣: Precision 2♡, 3♡: Transfer Lead: ♡3 (3rd/5th) South won with the ♡A while you followed ♡J. Then the declarer crossed to the table with ♠J to lead a small ♡ from table. Now what's your plan? Who holds the ♡T and where is the ♢A become 2 serious questions. First, 3♢ indicates that West holds 4 ...

Online training: Please remember to detect the honors beforehand !!!

This deal happened in our weekly online training last Monday. I couldn't concentrate my attention due to the lack of card sense online. Rookie mistake should be mentioned here. Board 13 Vul: Both Dealer: North East    West 1NT      2♣  2♡       4♡ Lead: ♠7 South led ♠7 while North followed ♠J. And I won with the ♠Q. Now what's your plan? ♠7 seemed to be doubleton. Firstly, you couldn't avoid to lose 1♠, 1♢ and 1♣ at least. In other word, you must make a right guess in who had ♡Q. For me, due to the leading, I had supposed South hold long ♡ and he hadn't led trump, so I just played casually, cashing ♡K, then ♡J->♡2->♡5->♡Q... Oops... Doing some detection first to find more clues might be a better choose. Sending out ♢ first and whatever who won, he had no choice but to return ♢ or ♠. I could win in hand. Crossing to table with ♣K. And now the distribution was clear. If one A for each, now it was your guess time, n...

Saturday Training: Leading analysis

This deal happened in termly Saturday training. Card distribution analysis was always a commonplace in my blog. Now, it was still worth to be mentioned again. Board 3 Vul :N-S Dealer: South South     North  1NT         3♡*  3NT         AP 3♡: 4 cards ♠, choosing contract Lead: ♣7 (2nd/4th) West thought for a while and lead ♣7. East followed ♣J. It's your show time. Please start. It was ridiculous. Totally 27 points, only 6 tricks. Even if you get 4♠ and you create a winner in ♡, still 8 tricks. There was an easy way that finessing ♡K directly or hope 3-3 in ♣. How to find the best way to try all the chance became a serious problem. What comes first? For West, 3 cases, ♣97x, ♣7x or ♣97xx. Due to the period of his thinking and table sense, he hardly hold 4 cards ♣. In first two cases, why didn't he lead his 4 cards suit. That was to say, his longest suit was ♠. If he was 4-3-3-3, why didn't he le...