Bridge

I am not trying to corner the market in very boring bridge columns but I am going to give you another hand which is all about suit combinations. My regular reader may recall that I wrote about this very subject a fortnight ago, never expecting another informative hand to come up on a similar theme. Since 2025 dawned I have only played rubber bridge as ‘the season’ hasn’t begun yet; today’s hand comes from an online Pairs match I happened to be watching and which was thoroughly explained by the commentators. The difference in how to play the Heart suit lies in whether you are playing in game or slam.

The vast majority of players went down in this cold 3NT. How would you plan the play?

The normal lead was the J♠, won by South. Some declarers will have ducked a Club at trick 2 while others attacked Hearts. How would you play the Hearts?

If you could only afford to let the defence in once, it would be correct to run the Jack from dummy or, alternatively, start with a small Heart from hand (West should play low). In both cases, you then lay down the Ace and hope to drop the other honour. This would be the right play in 6NT, while in 3NT you’d also succeed if they’re breaking 3-3.

This is not the best play though – not by far! The best chance lies in playing West for at least one honour in Hearts, which he will have about 75 per cent of the time. Lead up towards the Jack, ten in dummy twice, and nine tricks are easy!