Declarer Play Fundamentals

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You are South in a contract of three hearts. Here is the auction and what you see after opening lead of the queen of diamonds:

play puzzle1

Counting losers like a good declarer, you see two spades, two hearts, and one diamond. You can hold your spade losers to one if ace of spades is onside. How about the diamond loser? East has gotten off to a good lead.

Noticing your combined holding in clubs, you win the ace of diamonds. Then cash the king of clubs and low club, finessing the jack. If the finesse wins, you have a parking place for your diamond loser on the ace of clubs. If the finesse loses, your spade king is protected from attack. Also, you can win any diamond lead and still park your remaining diamond on the ace of clubs.

BTW, I don’t recommend opening two hearts vulnerable with the South hand. South does not have the necessary five playing tricks (within three tricks of making contract when vulnerable). South was lucky to find North with an opening hand and queen-nine third of hearts.

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