East was happy to see
partner’s lead of the Queen of hearts, as he knew it would win.
He quickly played the 5 of hearts and won partner’s continuation
with the King of Hearts and cashed the Ace of the suit. Unfortunately
for East, West wasn’t too happy as he still had 2 good hearts
and no way for his partner to get to him. East actually shifted to
a low spade but declarer won and preceded to win all the rest of the
tricks for 10 tricks East needed to stop and think before playing to the first trick. West’s lead of the Queen showed the Jack and should be from a 4 card or longer suit. Also East has 9 high card points and dummy has 11 for 20 points. Declarer opened 1NT, which has a range of 15-17 points. That adds up to 35 to 37 points and leaves partner with 3 to 5 points and he already knows of 3 of those points so its possible partner has nothing outside of hearts. He can also see 3 hearts in his hand and 3 in dummy. Partner should have at least 4 so declarer can only have 3 at most. Therefore if partner wins the third heart with his Jack, all the rest of his hearts will be good. East should overtake the Queen with his King and cashes his Ace and leads his third heart. Partner will win with the Jack (remember the Queen showed the Jack) and cash his remaining hearts. On today’s hand West has 5 hearts so by taking the first 5 heart tricks you will beat the contract by one trick rather then letting them make the contract with an overtrick as happen on this hand.
|
942 
643
KQJ2
K82