An Entry Killing Play or Not

This deal happened in our weekly online training on 12th Mar, 2018.

Board 13

Vul: Both

Dealer: North

North East South West

1♢ Pass 3♣* Pass

3NT Pass Pass Pass

3♣: Inv

Lead: ♠4

Trick North East South West

1 ♠K ♠4 ♠2 ♠J

2 ♣2 ♣6 ♣J ♣K

3 ?

North accepts the invitation from South. The declarer wins with the ♠K and play a small club to dummy's ♣J. You win with the ♣K. And now what's your plan?

Obviously, South bids a bit more. 1NT might be a normal bidding, because ♣ is not strong enough to bear the risk of 3NT in such a vulnerability.

Fourth highest leading is applied in our defense. ♠4 indicates that partner holds 4♠ only. Returning ♠ is hopeless. To defeat the contract, partner must hold 10 points at least. Assuming that the declarer holds 16 points, the contract is frigid. Returning ♡ seems to be an entry killing coup. If the declarer couldn't return back hand, he will lose 3♣ and more importantly, there is no enough entry for dummy to build the ♣ suit and run it. Analyzing deeply, shifting ♡ will succeed in only one situation that the declarer holds 3 hearts with K and ♢A without ♠A. If the declarer doesn't hold ♡K, he must hold ♢AK. He could easily return back and he will win 5♣, 2♡, 2♢ and 1♠ at least. So your partner must hold one top ♢. You will win 2♣ and no hope in ♡, so ♢ is the only resource for other 2 winners. Hence, shifting ♢ is inevitable. Even if in above-mentioned situation, shifting ♢ is still a good choice. Assuming that the distribution of declarer is 4-3-4-2 with ♡K and ♢A, your partner will hold 4-3-3-3 with ♢K. If you shift ♢, the declarer must duck in this trick, otherwise he will lose 2♣, 2♢ and 1♠. In this situation, after winning with the ♢K, your partner will calculate the distribution of the declarer through his cards and he will decide to shift ♡ to kill the dummy's entry or keep returning ♢.

The full deal:

Board 13

Vul: Both

Dealer: North

Comments

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