Classic Rewind: Execution Quiz from 2008

I picked up this nice hand at teams:

♠ 8
♥AK10974
♦ AQ7
♣ AQ6

 RHO surprised me by opening 1♠. I doubled and LHO bid 2♦, nonforcing. RHO bid 3♣. I had heard enough and jumped to 4♥. All passed.

A spade was led and a weak dummy appeared.

North Deals None Vul	♠ 9 7 5 4 ♥ J 6 5 ♦ J 8 3 ♣ J 4 2
	N W E S
	♠ 8 ♥ A K 10 9 7 4 ♦ A Q 7 ♣ A Q 6

I ruffed the spade continuation (LHO played hi-lo) and cashed 2 rounds of hearts which picked up the trumps. What next?

I decided to lead a diamond to the jack to see what would happen. Not only did it hold, but RHO showed out! Hmm...now I have a count of the hand. (Pause here if you want to practice counting...)


RHO started with 6♠, 2♥, no diamonds and therefore 5♣. More importantly, LHO was 2-2-7-2. I started formulating a plan. Think about how to best play the hand before you read on.



I led a club to the Q and cashed the ♣A, thereby extracting the clubs from LHO's hand. Now LHO is down to all diamonds, so I simply played Ace and Q of diamonds and he was end played and forced to give me a ruff and sluff so that I made 5!

North Deals None Vul	♠ 9 7 5 4 ♥ J 6 5 ♦ J 8 3 ♣ J 4 2
♠ 10 3 ♥ Q 3 ♦ K 10 9 6 5 4 2 ♣ 8 5	N W E S	♠ A K Q J 6 2 ♥ 8 2 ♦ — ♣ K 10 9 7 3
	♠ 8 ♥ A K 10 9 7 4 ♦ A Q 7 ♣ A Q 6

At matchpoints it would have been a top. At teams it was only worth an imp, but a well executed endplay is usually worth writing about!

See you at the table!