Duplicate Bridge is all about outplaying the opponents holding your cards to give you the above par result. Therefore, playing a pairs tournament, the dummy play becomes, all important. The one vital factor should always be kept in mind when playing a hand at pairs. That is to assess whether you are in a par contract that would be bid popularly, or below par or over board.
Then the opening lead tells you whether it is a favourable one a common par lead or a killing lead. Your dummy play needs to be adjusted accordingly. Let us learn by illustration. NS bid 4H on the following hand and bidding.
The hand:
The opening lead from west is 10S and dummy's queen is taken by the ace. East returns the 5S, south discards a club and west's 9S forces out dummy's KS. Trumps are drawn despite the poor 4 - 3 combination fit but to the declarer's relief they break even 3 - 2. Now as south, what is your plan in tacking 4H at pairs?
Let us begin by counting our losers and winners. We have a loser in club and have already lost a spade trick. So the focus is on how best can the diamond suit be tackled with the QD guess being both ways. If a diamond trick is lost, you will be restricted to 4 heart tricks, 3 diamond tricks, 1 spade trick and 2 club tricks remember you have only one trump protection left. The diamond finesse if going wrong will allow the opponent to play their winning spade to knockout your last trump. And then, if the club finesse does not hold, you are bound to go down.
As noted above the first question you need to address yourself is: whether you are in a normal contract that is likely to be played at other tables? The answer would be certainly not. A 4-3 trump contract is never a popular one when the alternate NT contract looks far better and rosier. Had north signed off in 4NT it would have been better with spades doubly protected and clubs keeping the anger our opponent out of lead. It is clear that at most of the tables north would be playing a 3NT contract and with the most likely spade lead coming up to his KQ it is easy to for see how have the play would unfold in a NT contract. The declarer will naturally finesse the diamond into the east hand to protect his spade holding and if the finesse holds, north south in a NT contract are likely to make 11 tricks or even 12 if west is found with a doubleton KC.
In 4H playing the same way, no doubt you can also make 11tricks if west holds QD. But that would be a bottom for you still compared with the NT contracts. Therefore, the key to success here is to outscore the NT declarers, you need to make a trick more than their tally. And the only way is to take the finesse in diamonds the other way playing east for the QD. Do you see the intricacy of dummy play in a pairs contracts? All those NT contractors will be making only 3 diamond tricks if east holds the QD while you will score all 4 diamond tricks, all 4 heart tricks, 1 spade trick and if KC is doubleton with west, all 3 club tricks for 12 tricks converting a sure bottom into a well-played top-all because you were alert enough to swim against the tide.
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North South
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1D 1H
3NT 4D
4H All Pass
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North North
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K Q 3 7
Q J 4 A K 10 5
A J Q 7 K 10 6 2
A Q 5 J 4 3 2
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