North-South vulnerable. North deals.

North-South vulnerable. North deals.
NORTH
x K 10 8 5 4 3
u 6 5 4
v J
w A Q 2
WEST EAST
x J 7 x Q 6 2
u A J 10 9 2Q
v 8 7 5 v K Q 10 9 6
w K 7 6 5 w J 9 8 4
SOUTH
x A 9
u K 8 7 3 2
v A 4 3 2
w 10 3
The bidding:
NORTH EAST SOUTH WEST
1x Pass 2u Pass
3u Pass 4u Pass
Pass Pass
Opening lead: Five of w
One of the prettiest examples of card reading is from the Australian Teams Championship. Sitting South was player/writer Tim Bourke.
Most Norths would select a weak two-bid in spades as their opening, but North was known to be an aggressive bidder. Note North's heart raise on the second round with three low cards rather than rebid the moth-eaten six-card spades. It was important to set the known eight-card fit rather than possibly sending the bidding off on a tangent.
West led a low club and dummy's queen was inserted, winning the trick. Dummy was short of entries to set up and run the spades, and there was a danger of a 4-1 trump split, in which case South might be defeated in the trump suit alone. Declarer decided to postpone attacking hearts. Instead, he led a diamond to the ace and ruffed a diamond, returned to the ace of spades and ruffed another diamond. The king of spades and ace of clubs were cashed, and a club was ruffed low in the closed hand. Now declarer led another diamond, West ruffing with the nine and South discarding a spade from dummy to bring about this position:
x10 8 5
u6
v --
w --
x-- Q
uA J 10 uQ
v -- 7K
wK wJ
x --
uK 8 7 3
v --
w --
West led the king of clubs and, had declarer won this trick in hand, he would have had to lead away from the king of hearts and the defenders would have scored the last three tricks -- down one. Instead, declarer ruffed with the table's six and underruffed in hand. Next, a spade was ruffed and West had to overruff. With only the ace-jack of hearts remaining, West had to present South with the king of trumps as the fulfilling trick.
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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