Today’s deal is from a recent tournament in Australia. South was young Australian star James Coutts. This was a delicate auction to an aggressive game, but it gave Coutts a chance to strut his stuff. East won the opening club lead and continued with another club. Coutts ruffed in dummy and led a spade to his ace. East had very long clubs so Coutts reasoned that West was likely to have length in hearts. Coutts led a low heart and inserted dummy’s nine when West played low. That won, but East’s discard was a blow. Coutts led a spade to his king and continued with the queen of spades. Coutts led his last club and discarded a spade from dummy when West ruffed with the seven. Having no black cards left. West shifted to a diamond, picking up the queen for declarer. Coutts cashed three diamonds ending in dummy. This was the position:
Coutts led dummy’s spade and ruffed it with the queen of hearts! West could do no better than to overruff and lead away from his jack of hearts. Beautifully played!
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