Hand of the Week

A couple of people are trying to persuade me to start a 'hand of the week' blog, discussing interesting hands from the duplicates at Dorchester or Weymouth. I'm not sure about that, but this was the most interesting hand at Dorchester this week.

West led the ten of spades and declarer ducked the first two tricks (in case East had opened with a 5-card suit) and won the third. As West is more likely to hold the length in hearts, his next move was to play ace, king and another heart, but East was able to win and cash spades for two down.

Declarer missed an extra chance with an avoidance play. After a heart to the ace, he can come back to hand in diamonds and lead another heart, ducking when West plays the queen.

However, West could have thwarted this cunning plan by ditching the queen of hearts on the third round of spades. A tough play to find, but not too far-fetched as it only costs if declarer has jack doubleton of hearts. This would leave partner with four hearts, unlikely after the weak two opening. But then the defence have no chance if declarer wins the second round of spades.