The Elimination Game
By WBF In 15th World Bridge Series, Articles On 1st October 2018
One of the most important techniques at declarer’s disposal is that of elimination. In general terms, it is almost never wrong to eliminate suits, as it limits a defender’s options. Here is beautiful example from the penultimate session of the McConnell final:
North led the J and declarer won with the queen and played the 5. North took the ace and exited with the 3, declarer winning in hand, playing a club to the king, cashing the top hearts ending in hand and then playing a spade. After cashing two tricks in the suit she exited with a heart, knowing that whoever won would have to open up the diamonds. North chose to surrender by playing a club and declarer ruffed in dummy pitching a diamond from her hand and claimed, +420.
In the replay declarer won the spade lead, cashed two hearts and then played three rounds of spades pitching a club. When her next move was a diamond to the king she had to go down.