BRIDGE

North-South vulnerable. West deals.
NORTH
x A J 9 3
u 6 4 2
v J 4
w Q 4 3 2
WEST EAST
x Q 10 8 7 5 4 x K
u 10 3 u J 7
v K 9 6 v A Q 10 7 5 2
w 6 5 w K J 9 8
SOUTH
x 6 2
u A K Q 9 8 5
v 8 3
w A 10 7
The bidding:
WEST NORTH EAST SOUTH
2x Pass Pass Dbl
Pass 2NT 3v 3u
Pass 4u Pass Pass
Pass
Opening lead: Six of v
Often, the bidding and play to the first few tricks will paint an accurate picture of the deal. That permits an alert declarer to find the winning line.
West's weak two-spade opening bid was passed round to South, who balanced with a double. When South later bid freely over East's interference, North realized that South held a good hand with long hearts, and carried on to game.
West led a low diamond, East won with the ace and returned the seven of diamonds to West's king. The defender shifted to the six of clubs and East's jack lost to declarer's ace. Trumps were drawn in two rounds and, at this point, South had a blueprint of the holdings.
Since West never led a spade honor, either the king or queen had to be with East. And since the bidding marked West with six spades, East's honor had to be a singleton. The play marked West with three diamonds, hence a doubleton club. Based on these inferences, declarer had a sure-trick line to 10 tricks.
South crossed to the table with the ace of spades, dropping the king, and led a low club from dummy. If East rose with the king, declarer's ten would be established and declarer would get to dummy with a trump to discard the spade loser on the queen of clubs. If East inserted the nine, declarer's ten of clubs would win and a spade up to the jack would endplay West, who could win the spade but would then have to return a spade to dummy's jack, allowing declarer to discard the losing club!
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