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Zia's
Question and Solution for Week 7
'We
all enjoy being declarer, impressing partner and opponents alike
with our skill. Of course, if we're going to do that it's a good
idea to make the contract. See if you can win the admiration of
the table on this deal.'
- ZIA
West
deals and no one is vulnerable. Zia is South at IMP scoring.
The
bidding is as follows:
|
West
|
North
|
East
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South
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Pass
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Pass
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Pass
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1
|
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Dbl
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2
|
Pass
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2NT
|
|
Pass
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4
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Pass
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Pass
|
|
Pass
|
|
|
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The
final contract is 4,
West having made a takeout double of Zia's fourth seat 1
opening bid.
The
lead is  10, and Zia's
partner puts down this useful dummy:
Zia
tries J from dummy on
West's lead of 10 and
it holds the trick, East following with 4
and Zia discarding 3.
Zia leads a hopeful 10
from the table, but East follows with 5
and West wins with K
as Zia plays 2.
West
persists with Q, Zia
plays 5 from dummy,
East completes a peter with 2,
and Zia wins A. When
Zia cashes A both opponents
follow suit (West plays 4,
dummy 3 and East 6).
What
card would Zia play next?
Zia's
Solution
The
full deal is as shown:
Zia's answer is  10.
The
contract is in no danger whenever West has  A
or East has K. Zia 'knows'
that West does not hold both A
and K. Why? Because West
was unlikely to pass with both these cards in addition to the already
played K & Q.
The problem is when West holds the K
and East the A. In
this case, the contract will always fail if the opponents defend
accurately (they are entitled to 1 spade, 1 club and 2 diamonds).
However,
opponents don't always defend correctly! Zia's task is to make it
as hard as possible for them to do the right thing.
By
leading 10 from his hand,
Zia is offering West a chance to go wrong. He might very well duck
the K from Kxxx or Kxx.
If 10 holds, Zia would
safely try a diamond towards K
first, just in case it was East who ducked K.
He can postpone discarding the Q
on K until later in
the play. On the actual deal, East wins with A.
However, Zia's opponents could make only one further trick and the
contract would be safe.
Final
Result: NS win 10 tricks for +420
Other
possible outcomes of the 10
play are as follows.
If
West wins 10 with K
and leads a diamond, Zia would go down, but the contract was always
fated to do so.
If
West wins 10 with K
and is deceived by the club situation, he might be reluctant to
switch to a diamond from the Q,
in case Zia had the J
(remember at that point, K
had not been played).
In
the event that East wins with the K,
the contract would still be secure, with 4 spade tricks, 3 heart
tricks, and 3 club tricks. Zia would have sacrificed a possible
overtrick to give himself the best chance to make the contract.
Back
Conceived
and sponsored by Orbis Investment Management Limited. To learn about
the award winning Orbis Funds, visit www.orbis.bm.
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