BRIDGE

East-West vulnerable. North deals.
NORTH
x A 4
u Q J 10 5 3
v Q 7 4 2
w 9 3
WEST EAST
x K Q 10 3 2 x J 7 6 5
u K 8 2 u A 9 7 4
v 9 v 10 8 6
w Q 10 6 4 w J 2
SOUTH
x 9 8
u 6
v A K J 5 3
w A K 8 7 5
The bidding:
NORTH EAST SOUTH WEST
Pass Pass 1v 1x
2u 2x 3w Pass
4v Pass 5v Pass
Pass Pass
Opening lead: King of x
Good declarers are, by nature pessimists. Viewed through rose-colored spectacles, declarer has chances for 12 tricks. The darker picture is that, with normal distribution, South must play with care to fulfill the contract.
Note North's bidding. The diamond fit has improved his holding so, since a bid of only three diamonds might sound like a simple correction, he jumped to four diamonds knowing that South could not expect much more from him.
West led the king of spades and South foresaw some problems. The normal breaks in the minor suits were 4-2 in clubs and 3-1 in diamonds. Should declarer win the spade and draw three rounds of trumps, he would lose one trick in each plain suit. Drawing only two rounds of trumps and trying to ruff two clubs risks an overruff.
Declarer can cater to these possibilities by a technique known in the trade as a 'loser-on-loser' play. The ace and king of clubs are cashed and declarer continues with a low club, discarding the table's spade loser rather than ruffing! The defense is rendered helpless.
Declarer can use two high trumps in hand as entries to ruff a spade low and a club with the queen. Declarer eventually gets back to hand by trumping a major suit to draw the last trump with the knave and claim his contract since the fifth club has been established for the fulfilling trick.
& copy; 2004, Tribune Media Services