BRIDGE

Both vulnerable. North deals.
NORTH
x 6 5
u A Q 10 8 2
v A
w Q J 7 3 2
WEST EAST
x K 10 8 3 2 x Void
u 9 6 3 u K J 7 5 4
v K Q 9 5 v 10 4 3 2
w A w 9 8 5 4
SOUTH
x A Q J 9 7 4
u Void
v J 8 7 6
w K 10 6
The bidding:
NORTH EAST SOUTH WEST
1u Pass 1x Pass
2w Pass 2v Pass
3w Pass 3x Pass
3NT Pass 4w Pass
4x Pass Pass Dbl
Pass Pass Pass
Opening lead: King of v
Members of the club knew that to double Trump Coup Tommy with a trump stack was tantamount to giving Tommy a blueprint of the hand. But once in a while a visitor to the club would be impressed by his holding in Tommy's suit and venture a double, usually with tragic results. Here's an example.
The auction was arduous though intelligent. Tommy's two-diamond bid was fourth-suit forcing, not promising any particular holding in the suit. Thereafter, both players described their shape and reached a reasonable four spades, doubled by West.
West led the king of diamonds, taken by dummy's ace. Alerted by the double to the diabolic trump distribution, Tommy cashed the ace of hearts, discarding a diamond from hand, and ruffed a heart. Two diamond ruffs in dummy were then sandwiched around a heart ruff. With six tricks in the bank, Tommy simply needed to score his trumps via repeated trump coups.
A club was led, and West won with the ace and exited with his last diamond. Declarer ruffed and exited with a club, forcing West to ruff and lead a trump into Tommy's tenace. Tommy won and led his last club, forcing West to ruff for what was the last trick for the defense. The forced trump return allowed Tommy to pick up all the trumps and 10 tricks in all.
Note that an initial trump lead would hold declarer to nine tricks, Try it!
XThis column is written by Tannah Hirsch and Omar Sharif. For information about Charles Goren's newsletter for bridge players, call (800) 788-1225 or write Goren Bridge Letter, P.O. Box 4410, Chicago, Ill. 60680
& copy;2004 Tribune Media Services
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