BRIDGE

North-South vulnerable. North deals.
NORTH
x A Q 4
u K 9 6 5
v A 10 4
w A Q 7
WEST EAST
x 10 5 x 9 7 2
u J 10 8 3 u A Q 7 4 2
v K J 7 2 v Q 9 8 5
w 9 4 2 w 3
SOUTH
x K J 8 6 3
u Void
v 6 3
w K J 10 8 6 5
The bidding:
NORTH EAST SOUTH WEST
1w 1u 1x Pass
3NT Pass 4w Pass
4v Pass 6w Pass
6x Pass 7x Pass
Pass Pass
Opening lead: Jack of u
Count your tricks. Sometimes you need no more than that to point the way to the winning line.
North had intended opening one club and rebidding two no trump over South's response. East's entry into the bidding changed that. South's four clubs not only suggested that as a trump suit but showed slam interest. North cue-bid four diamonds and then removed six clubs to six spades, in the process denying possession of the ace of hearts since, with that card, North would have arranged to cue-bid hearts en route to the spade slam. South bid the grand slam on the strength of the heart void.
West led the jack of hearts and, when dummy appeared, South could count 12 tricks. (As the cards lie, with any other lead South would have had no play.) There seemed to be an unavoidable diamond loser and none of the plain suits could produce an extra trick to take care of the loser. The only road to an extra trick was in trumps, via a dummy reversal.
Declarer ruffed the opening lead, crossed to the ace of diamonds and ruffed another heart. After cashing the king of spades, dummy was entered with the queen of trumps and a third heart was ruffed. Declarer crossed to dummy with the queen of clubs and the ace of spades extracted the last trump, declarer discarding a diamond from hand. Now the clubs were run for 13 tricks -- three trumps, three heart ruffs, one diamond and six clubs.
& copy; 2004 Tribune Media Services