#2 North South Vulnerable
South West North East
2♣ Pass 2♠ Pass
2♠ Pass 3♠ Pass
4NT Pass 5♠ Pass
7♠ AP
West leads the ♦Q.
What’s South’s plan?
North Dummy
♠ Q 5 2
♥ A 7 6 4 3
♦ A 6
♣ 9 6 4
West East
♠ ♠
♥ ♥
♦ Q ♦
♣ ♣
South Declarer
♠ A K J 7 4 3
♥ K 2
♦ K 5
♣ A K J
As South, in order to avoid the club finesse, you must try to set up at least one of dummy’s hearts for a club discard. When setting up a long suit in dummy, keep as many late entries to dummy as possible. Win the ♦K and play the ♠AK, notice that the ♦A and ♠Q remain as “late” dummy entries. Next, cash the KA of hearts and trump a heart with the ♠J in case West is out of hearts. There is still one higher heart outstanding. Cross to the ♠Q, drawing West’s last trump and ruff a heart. Cross to the ♦A and discard the ♣J on the long heart. When setting up a long suit, use trump entries before side suit entries (♠Q before ♦A).
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