1) Cappelletti showing spades and a minor This month’s hand is based on a hand from the recent Washington Nationals. East/West were playing a convention that allowed them to show 2 suits to compete over their opponent’s notrump. Declarer played the Ten of spades from dummy but East won with the Jack and continued with the Ace and King of spades, West discard the two and 4 of clubs. East knew declarer was ruffing the fourth spades. Since he had both minor suit Kings, he decided to get out with a safe trump. This was far from safe. Declarer pulled trump and pitched his losing diamond on the good Queen of spades. Now lets consider what East should have thought and done. He like the fact that he has both minor suit Kings in back of dummy’s Aces. He doesn’t want to lead away from either of them. He also noted that dummy’s Queen of spades was good and could provide a pitch for any potential loser in declarer’s hand. The solution should be clear, return a 4th spade. There are two reasons for this. First, declarer would not be able to pitch a loser on this trick. If he did then partner would ruff and declarer would be set. Second, as partner was trumping in back of declarer, it might force declarer to ruff high and set up a trump trick for partner. When East returns a fourth spade what is poor declarer to do. If he ruff with the Ace or King, he can’t stop West from winning a trick. (If he tries to lead the Ten for a finesse, West will cover with the Jack and his 9 sets up). If he trumps with something lower, West will overtrump and again declarer will be down.
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QT65
Q3
A963
AQJ