3N Play Problem

[eagles123]

So I just had my first junior traning weekend which I really enjoyed, I thought this was a very good hand for N/B

 

spots are approx

 

[hv=pc=n&s=sakt7hk86dak64ck5&n=sj32hq5d75cqjt987&d=n&v=0&b=1&a=pp2np3nppp]266|200[/hv]

 

lead is 4 of spades 2 of spades from dummy, 9 of spades from RHO

 

form of scoring = imps

 

plan the play

[kuhchung]

I've always thought that the theme for these types of hands is to get it right and then follow up with, "I am a life master, you know"

[gszes]

 

 

The key to almost all declarer play is to count what is available and see if there is any way to take advantage of your sides assets. It is best to do this analysis at trick 1 before you play a card from dummy. Hesitations later in the hand may give away too much information to the opps.

 

Here is seems obvious we cannot readily come to 9 tricks without running the club suit. that means we need to determine if/how we can use the club suit. There are 2 possible entries the spade J and the heart Q and there is the remote chance a defender has the singleton club ace (let's not depend on that).

 

It is much better to take advantage of BOTH the spade J and the heart Q as possible entries rather than depending on just the heart Q right??? This means at trick 1 we must overcome the urge to win the first trick cheaply and win with the A or the K (which card to use is an entirely different topic but here using the A is best). By winning with a top spade at trick 1 we give ourselves an extra chance that the spade J will be an entry because we will still have 2 low spades to lead toward the J. We are trying to secure 5 club tricks and we are more than willing to give up 1 early cheap spade in order to greatly increase our chances of scoring 5 club tricks.