posted July 2010

Newmoon's Tourneys

How to make this Grand?

This hand comes from our Sunday 20th June Tourney

The makeable table tells you that 7 is cold.   West leads a small trump.   Trumps will break 3-2.

QUIZ: How do you make this grand?

Solution:

A couple of things must be right for you to make this:

1. The K must be on your left;
2. The clubs must break 3-3;
3. the spades must not be 3-3;
4. One defender must hold the K and the long spades.

Win the trump lead cheaply in the South hand, then take the club queen finesse, A, and ruff a club.   You breath a sigh of relief when the clubs do in fact break 3-3.

Now play off all your trumps (discarding a spade from dummy),   cash the A now (Vienna Coup) and then get to dummy with the K to play off your two club winners.

If either defender has the K and the spade guard, he is squeezed on the last club.

The sequence of play above caters for either defender to be squeezed. The full hands were: