Before deciding how to tackle a hand, experts don’t just weigh up the odds; they also size up the opponents. That’s why, whenever I present the likes of Zia Mahmood or Andrew Robson with a declarer problem, the first question they ask is: ‘Who am I playing?’ Needless to say, weak opponents are far less likely to have ducked a trick or played a false-card.
And so it was that when I gave the star England player David Gold this declarer problem, which had come up the previous evening, he wanted to know: ‘How good is my right-hand opponent, and how good is my left?’
The ♠10 is led. You play low. East wins with the ♠K and returns a spade to dummy’s ♠A. You now play a low diamond from dummy towards the ♦J, and it holds the trick.
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