#3 East West Vulnerable
South West North East
1♣ Pass 1♦ 1♥
3♣ 3♥ 4♣ Pass
5♣ AP
West leads the ♥5.
East wins the ♥A and returns a heart.
What’s South’s plan?
North Dummy
♠ A J 10
♥ 10 3
♦ K 7 4 2
♣ 10 8 7 6
West East
♠ ♠
♥ 5 ♥
♦ ♦
♣ ♣
South Declarer
♠ 9 2
♥ 9
♦ A 8 6
♣ A K Q J 5 3 2
As South, you have two lines of play available. You can play three rounds of diamonds and hope they break 3-3 (36% of time). If they do, you can use dummy’s long diamond to discard a losing spade out of South’s hand. Alternatively, you can take two spade finesses. If West has one or both of the spade honors (75%) of time, you can set up a spade trick for a diamond discard. If you have seven cards in a suit, you can expect a 3-3 break 1/3 of time, 4-2 break 50% of time. If you need one of two finesses to work, this will happen about 75% of the time. Odds tell South to trump the heart return, pull trump and lead a spade to the J. If it loses, win the return and lead a second spade up to the 10. If it wins, cash the ♠A and discard the ♦6 out of South’s hand.
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