March Problem

	K Q K Q J K Q J 10 7 A 9 3
		8 6 4 3 9 8 3 9 6 2 8 7 5
Both Vul

West Pass Pass Pass

North 4 5 7 NT

East Pass Pass All Pass

South 1 NT 4 NT 5

Trick 1. W 2. N 3. S 4. N

Lead J 7 8 Q

2nd Q 2 4 9

3rd 3 A K 3

4th 5 5 6 2

West leads the Jack of spades to South’s 7NT contract. You follow with the three as the queen wins. South plays three rounds of diamonds and West discards the spade deuce on the third. Plan the defense. (Please, no answers saying, “What defense?”)

As is our custom, the free play will go to the correct answer from the RBC member with the fewest masterpoints. “Correct” is a relative term; just saying “I lead X,” even if X is the winning play, will probably not qualify unless nobody else finds the play. You need to furnish some justification for your play. (On the other hand, a briefly or poorly stated but correct justification will fully qualify, if I can figure it out. This is not an essay contest.) I am the sole judge of what constitutes “correct.” Send answers to JohnCTorrey@aol.com.

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February Answer

	A K 7 3 8 4 2 7 5 K Q 6 4
Q 8 2 9 5 K 10 6 2 J 9 5 3		J 10 6 5 K Q J Q J 8 3 10 8
None Vul	9 4 A 10 7 6 3 A 9 4 A 7 2

West Pass Pass All Pass

North 1 1 2

East Pass Pass Pass

South 1 2 4

Trick 1. W 2. E 3. S

Lead 9 K ?

2nd 2 A

3rd J 9

4th 3 4

West leads the nine of hearts to your 4 contract. East plays the jack and you duck. East now leads the king and you win, West following. Plan the play.

Claim before you make a mistake. Use spade and a club entry to trump two spades in your hand and then play the clubs, trumping the fourth round if necessary. The ace of diamonds is your tenth trick. If one of these tricks is trumped with the opponents’ queen, then dummy’s trump eight will be there to ruff your third diamond.

For some reason the winning line is hard to see, and there were some entries looking for a squeeze, or to duck a diamond to West. (Double squeeze chances collapse if you duck a diamond and the defense cashes its trump and leads diamonds.) Erik Secan had an interesting entry that was close to correct; he thought he might need to score his last trump en passant; at the table his line would probably succeed. Winning answers came from Audrey Ventura, Gary Kuhn, and Ashok Damle, who wins the free play.