The Story of the 9

The story of the 9. There is an interesting deal last week. You have to declare the game contract of 4♥ after the following auction. You as dealer open with 1♠ partner responds with 2♣. You rebid 2♥ and rebid ♥ after partner bid 2NT. The final contract is 4♥.
West starts with ♦ 9, here is the complete deal.

	Partner
	♠ J
	♥ J62
	♦ AQ5
	♣ A98765
♠ 765		♠ K1032
♥ K7		♥ Q103
♦ 9876		♦ K543
♣ K1043		♣ QJ
	You
	♠ AQ984
	♥ A9854
	♦ J10
	♣ 2

Declarer finesse the first trick, East won with ♦K. What is the best defense?
One declarer received a club return. He won in dummy and cashes the diamond, before cross ruff (♠ A, ♠ ruff, ♣ ruff, spade ruff, and club ruff). On this trick, East discard his winner ♠K. But declarer has a counterstrike by ruffing his last spade with ♥J, while west discarding his last diamond. East overruff with ♥Q.

The last 3 cards are: South ♥A98; west ♥K7 ♣10; North irrelevan, East ♥103 and ♦3.
When East return diamond, declarer just ruff with ♥8, and claim. Thank for the ♥98.
Another declarer receive the same opening lead, but East switch to a trump. West won with ♥K and return another trump. Declarer won with ♥A and your time to plan your play.

Finally, declarer found the best solution. He goes to dummy with diamond and run the ♠J. East play small. Then declarer cash another diamond. ♣A and ♣ ruff, follow by ♠ ruff. When another club is played from dummy, East is difficulties. Discarding spade, will make declarer spade goods, while discarding diamond, he will bw endplayed. Finally, East chosed to discard his diamond and declarer read the distribution correctly by playing the last trump to East.
If East covers the ♠J, the same situation occurs, thank to the ♠9.

Extra Chance

I have found a good dummy play problem during Poncol Challenge in Jakarta last Friday.

You open with 1NT (15-17), and after stayman, you find the spade fit. After a 4D splinter, you bid 4H (cue) and you arrive in 6S.

You Partner 1NT 2C

2S 4D(splinter)

4H 4NT

5D 6S

all pass

West start with trump and your first problem is solved, but there is still a problem.

Dealer	South
Vurn	US
	North
	♠ A975
	♥ KJ1076
	♦ 10
	♣ A87
	South
	♠ KJ102
	♥ A42
	♦ AJ92
	♣Q10

On west spade, you play ♠7 from dummy and win. How do you continue? Many declarer fail to land the contract because they missguess the queen heart.

If the spades are 3-2 and you find the Queen after west lead it. Don't just depend your contract on successfull finesse of heart queen. Your chance is only 50% without any clue at all. As a declarer you need to find extra chance.

So, what's is the best plan?

After winning the spade in dummy, you can increase you chance by playing club from dummy. If East plays small, you can insert the ten. It is very difficult for East to play small if he has the King. He doesn't know that you have the ten.

If you have a club trik, then you can discard your heart on the Ace of club, and ruff the heart. You succeed even if heart breaks 4-1 and with four cards in East.

Here is the complete deal.

Dealer	South
Vurn	All
	North
	♠ A975
	♥ KJ1076
	♦ 10
	♣ A87
West		East
♠864		♠ Q3
♥ 53		♥ Q98
♦ Kxxx		♦ Q763
♣K9xx		♣J542
	South
	♠ KJ102
	♥ A42
	♦ AJ92
	♣Q10

Another Safety Play Problem

How do you handle this problem when facing the opponents without signal of distribution.

I found this problem when playing with robot in on line bridge game .

Dealer	South
Vurn	All
	North
	♠10 5
	♥ J976
	♦ AK765
	♣108
	South
	♠AKJ2
	♥ AK42
	♦ Q10
	♣A93

After making an opening bid of 2NT, you finally reach 4♥. West opening lead is ♦3. East plays the Jack when you play small diamond from dummy.

What is your plan to fulfill the contract?

If the heart breaks evenly, you will make lots of trick. All you need to calculate if the heart break 4-1 and the queen does not drop.

So, I play the ♥ AK, unfortunately West discards club on the second round. What next?

As we play again opponent without knowing their distribution, you have to handle this contract very careful.

Finally I cash the ♦ 10, but no information we get, beleive that diamond are 4-2.

What's your next move to land this contract?

In my opinion, with only 5 cards club on both hand compare to 6 cards spade between two hands, there is a bigger chance that spade will divide unevenly than clubs. If spade divides 5-2 and west holds the queen, the contract is in danger if we try to ruff the spade to reach the dummy.

With this plan in mind, finally I make a safety play by playing a small spade to 10. I will make the contract no matter where the ♠Q is, as long as the spade distributes no worse than 4-2.

Here is the complete deal.

Dealer	South
Vurn	All
	North
	♠10 5
	♥ J976
	♦ AK765
	♣108
West		East
♠Q8765		♠93
♥ 5		♥ Q1083
♦ 643		♦ J92
♣KJ76		♣Q542
	South
	♠AKJ2
	♥ AK42
	♦ Q10
	♣A93