EXTRA ENTRY REQUIRED 2

Once again South required an extra entry and thought he had solved the problem, but unfortunately for him, it was McTavish who held the West cards.

Love All: West deals

Bidding:

For once McTavish failed to find the killing lead of a diamond, but opened play with the jack of spades. Declarer was pretty certain that East had the king of hearts, but that it was well guarded and would require three finesses to make four tricks.

He won the first trick with the queen and won a heart finesse. He thought he had the answer and led the three spades, with every intention of finessing the nine for the extra entry, but McTavish saw what was coming and inserted the ten to foil the plot.

Declarer could only take the ace and take a second heart finesse, but that was not enough. He could have cashed out for eight tricks but he led the ace and a small club in the hope that the opponents would slip up. However, McTavish won and duly switched to diamonds and the contract failed by two tricks.

“If McTavish had played a small spade like any normal mortal and not the ten, I would have been home,” said South plaintively.

“Other than a heart, my lead was the only one to give you your contract. All you had to do was to put up the ace at once,” declared McTavish baiting the trap.

“That makes no difference. You can still put up the ten on the next spade from me,” responded South, falling into the trap like many others before him.