The EBU’s Premier League (eight teams in Division 1 – seven 16-board matches each weekend) took place over three weekends, and after the second we were leading. Only one problem – I didn’t play the second weekend, which meant that to qualify I had to play five of the remaining seven matches which, naturally enough, gave my teammates a collective panic attack. Playing with my regular partner Artur Mali, we guzzled down 64 boards on Saturday and 16 on Sunday, won them all, and left the four professionals to finish the final two matches. I’ll skip lightly over match six but after match seven we had won… with a bit to spare!

Luckily, I didn’t have much to do outside laying dummy down, but I got this hand right on the simple principle of making a plan and taking my chances in the right order.

West led a Heart, and the very first thing I did (shock horror) was count my tricks; nine on top and prospects for more from the Club suit. So, how should the Clubs be played? Bang down Ace and King or safety play the suit somehow? That question cannot be answered until you figure out how many tricks you need from the suit, and the answer to that question lies in the Spade suit. The right play is to try the Spade finesse at trick two; if it loses, then you have to play Clubs for five tricks, meaning cashing the Ace and King, hoping for Qx somewhere. Not very complicated but essential.

In this instance, the Spade finesse worked, so now I could safety play the Clubs by cashing the Ace and leading a small one towards dummy.

No need to panic, boys.

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