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HOMEPAGE > QUIZ > HAMMAN'S TIPS > WEEK 35

Dealer : West
Vuln : East-West

HAMMAN'S TIPS #35
by Bob Hamman
the world's #1 ranked player

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

This hand helped us to win the Bermuda Bowl last year. Dick Freeman, my teammate, led the queen of diamonds. Declarer should have led clubs twice toward his hand in the feint hope of setting up three club tricks, to discard one of dummy's diamonds. But he didn't. He won the Q lead, traveled to dummy in trumps, led a club to his king and returned to dummy in trumps. Then he made the mistake of leading a heart from dummy. Nick Nickell (East) played his ace of hearts and returned a diamond, so declarer was down one, losing two hearts, one diamond and one club.

At the other table, my other teammates (I was sitting on the bench this set) received a trump lead against 4. This gave declarer time to take a better play. Eric Rodwell (South) immediately attacked hearts, needing only the jack onside to set up his discard.

My tip today is one of my favorites: Be wary of the trump lead. It gives declarer timing.

South — 1(1) 1NT 2 4	West pass pass pass pass all pass	North pass 1(2) 2(3) 3NT	East pass pass pass pass
(1) Precision Club, 16+ (2) artificial negative, 0-7 (3) transfer to spades

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