Hand

Marvin Levine reports this hand from hi B win in Wednesday's Senior Pairs. He was in 4 Hearts on this hand:

S: 8 2
H: J 9 8 3
D: A Q 6 3
C: A K 4

S: K 9
H: A K 7 4 2
D: J 10 9 4
C: 7 6 3

The opening lead is a small spade to the ace, then a small spade to the king. How do you play the hand?

It looks straightforward: Try to drop the Q of hearts and take the diamond finesse. If someone has Qxx of hearts and only two clubs, a slim possibility, you might be able to endplay that defender. If you want to try this, you probably should cash the A and K of clubs first.

Marvin's insight was that it costs nothing to go the the board in clubs and lead the 9 of hearts. Assuming nothing interesting happens, he then proceeds on his path of cashing another club and another heart.

In fact, RHO covered the 9 with the 10 and LHO showed out. So Marvin could return to the board in clubs and pick up the heart suit for no losers.

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