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95
AJ752
K
KT984
North opened this 11 point hand in second seat hoping his nice shape would make up for any deficiencies, but he became less confident when south drove them to game in spades.
Imagine you are South on this hand.
West leads the four of diamonds, forcing dummy's singleton king and taken by East's ace, East shifts to a trump which you win in your hand with the Ace.
Can you see a plan from here? First, count your losers. Unfortunately, this is a rough hand. Both you and your partner have singletons, but you also hold the kings in those suits, making those high card points less valuable.
On first count you have zero spade losers, 1 heart losers, 3 diamond losers and a club loser. You need to get those five losers down to three. How?
Well, you can trump a diamond in dummy. But then dummy is out of trump (remember one round has been played), so you're still stuck with two more diamond losers in your hand. So let's hold off on that thought.
You need to ditch diamonds on the long hearts, but how? Well, first you might consider a heart finesse. If the K is in the west then you can finesse for it, but what then? You won't have a heart loser, but you will still have two diamond losers.
The only hope is for hearts to be split 3-3 so South can drop losing diamonds and/or his losing club on North's long hearts. But here is where it gets tricky.
South must play the Q and when West covers with the King, south must duck and let West win the trick. Now South can win the return, draw the last trump, and run dummy's hearts, making four.
What happens if you cover the King of hearts with dummy's ace? You run out of entries to dummy. You can win the Jack of hearts and trump a heart, thereby leaving yourself with no heart losers. But now you can't get to dummy after you draw trump, and the good hearts are stranded.
The defense has opportunities to set the contract, but they aren't easy to see. If West or East continues diamonds at their first opportunity, forcing dummy to rough, communication is broken. The defense can take a second diamond trick before South can throw his diamonds on North's Hearts. But most defenders will see the diamond void in dummy and switch to a trump, usually a wise move.
In this hand the the only hope for declarer is to duck a winning finesse, letting the king of hearts win when you could take it with the ace. At the same time, the winning line for the defense is to play diamonds, forcing dummy to rough with its short trumps. I love it when hands show us how the typical 'rules' we follow when playing bridge don't always work, and that each hand stands unique.
