Eszter shone in her play of this tricky hand. You are North at Love All and the bidding has gone:
South West North EastNo 1
2
No
No X All Pass
East led the
6 and this is what Eszter could see:
South (Dummy)
J10
QJ2
J109532
Q6
North AQ84
A54
8
A10832
Yes, it could have been worse but it was clear East had a Club stack and a Diamond shortage. West took the opening lead and continued with the
Ace. Eszter ruffed low and was overruffed by East, who exited with a small Heart, which went Queen, King, Ace. Eszter wisely resisted the urge to do anything with trumps early on, crossed back to the
Jack and led the
Jack. West covered and Eszter took her Ace.
Now Eszter led a small Club. East played low and West's singleton Jack fell under the Queen. Eszter cashed the
10 and exited with a Heart, which was won by East's 9 (Given East's lead of a small Heart earlier, West probably thought this was getting ruffed, but I think they should have risen with the 10 regardless).
East was now comprehensively endplayed. He tried exiting with the
9, but Eszter won her 10 and then played the
Queen and exited with her last Spade to endplay East again for a valuable doubled overtrick.
Well played! The trick here was to resist the urge to play on trumps too early and then to only lead them once. East was always going to be vulnerable to being endplayed by their own trump length.
