Master Play

18^th April – Board 20: Game All. Dealer West.

The bidding at the table didn’t exactly go as detailed but the final contract was the same and East led a low club….

	North: S A 4 3 H A 9 6 5 2 D A 7 C A K 10
West: S K J 7 6 H J 10 8 4 D K Q 8 C Q 3		East: S 8 5 2 H Q D J 10 5 3 C 9 7 5 4 2
	South: S Q 10 9 H K 7 3 D 9 6 4 2 C J 8 6

West	North	East	South
1NT	Dbl	2C	No
No	2NT	No	3NT
End

Sitting West I played the club queen without much thought and North won in hand. A heart to the king allowed declarer to play one back to the jack and ace but now the jack of clubs furnished an entry to dummy for another heart lead. When the smoke cleared declarer emerged with nine tricks via one spade, four hearts, one diamond and three clubs. Looking at it now I see that if I had made the master play of following with a low club on the initial lead declarer would almost certainly have won with the ten but would now be denied the entry to dummy to pick up the hearts.