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In a Teams of Four practice session, both declarers proclaimed 6H impossible to make. To succeed, employ a technique that changes the way you look at the entire deal . . .
Bidding
Dealer: East
Game All
With the seemingly unavoidable club finesse losing, it does appear that twelve tricks cannot be secured. However, visualising dummy as the master hand (a “dummy reversal”) often provides a new angle on a tough problem. Think of it this way: if you pitch dummy’s 7♣ on the fourth round of spades from hand, and ensure that you ruff ♦J2 in hand, the club finesse is irrelevant and dummy can only lose A♥. When dummy contains more trumps than declarer, this thinking should be automatic, but even when declarer holds the same number of trumps, or more, viewing the hand “upside-down” occasionally offers you a much more promising line of play.
Win the lead with A♦, cash K♦, pitching 4♣ from hand, and ruff 2♦ with Q♥. Whether East takes A♥ quickly or not, you can return to dummy with a trump, ruff J♦ with K♥ and continue drawing trumps. If East takes A♥ and switches to a club, you win with A♣, complete your trump-pulling and return to dummy with Q♠. ♥J10 will draw the trumps and you can pitch ♣QJ on them. Now, you have top spades to enjoy and your contract is home.
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