A Fine Selection of Diamonds

Morkork saw the possible problem right from the start and managed to bring home his doubled contract for a gain of 11.83 IMPs.

Dlr: West Vul: None
Scoring:Â IMPs

North  J 5 2  A K 10 5  A K 9 4  10 5
West  K 10 9 8 7 3  9 6  3  K Q J 7	East  A Q 6 4  Q 7  Q J 7 6  8 6 4
South  —  J 8 4 3 2  10 8 5 2  A 9 3 2

West	North	East	South
1	Dbl	Redbl	4
4	5	Dbl	All Pass

After ducking the club king opening lead, Morkork took the second club and drew trumps in two rounds. He realized he would make his contract easily if diamonds split 3-2, but what if they were 4-1? He decided to take out insurance via a crossruff that would strip the hand.

He ruffed a spade and a club before cashing one top diamond. Then he proceeded to crossruff the remaining black cards. At trick eight, East realized he had to keep his three diamonds, so he was forced to discard a spade on the last club ruff. The final spade ruff removed his last out card and he was left with just the queen-jack-small of diamonds.

Morkork knew he was home. When he led a diamond and West showed out, he played the 9 from dummy and East was endplayed. If West had followed to the second diamond, Morkork still would have finessed the 9, covering the possibility that West started with four diamonds.

If Morkork had not stripped the hand, East would have been able to get out of his hand with a black card after winning a diamond.