To catch a thief
Your hand sitting South
Bidding
Dealer South, East-West vulnerable:
Card play
6♠ contract played by South. West leads the 10 of ♥.
► How will you get out of this?
Comment on bidding: 3♠ shows interest for slam and 2NT, known as the “yes but” convention, as well as a good hand, but is not a control-showing bid. North should have contented himself with 4♠ over 4♥, not allowing this very bad slam to be declared.
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This works great if you know how many Hearts and Clubs East has. But in a real play how can you tell if, after ten tricks, East has Heart Kx and Club A or Heart K and Club AJ?
The answer Jeremy lies in the table’s presence. you need to watch in which order both opps discard their cards. The most common thing is that people start discarding their longest suits. Very often (surely on Funbridge) they give a count to some suits because they have to figure out what shape is declarer if not known in the bidding. In the end, nothing is certain and you have to play according to your gut or some percentage play, whatever works better for you in the long run.
The outcome on this hand is more for the defense. Think the board through and discard accordingly on spades – you can see the end play coming and make your HK singleton immediately. Of course, the partner has to play along and keep the hearts to complete the cover-up of the shape.