BRIDGE

Both vulnerable. North deals.
NORTH
x A 5 4
u K 9 8 2
v Q 5
w A 10 6 5
WEST EAST
x Q 10 8 6 3 x J 9
u 7 5 u 6 3
v J 9 6 2 v K 10 8 7 4 3
w Q 8 w J 9 3
SOUTH
x K 7 2
u A Q J 10 4
v A
w K 7 4 2
The bidding:
NORTH EAST SOUTH WEST
1w Pass 1u Pass
2u Pass 4NT Pass
5w Pass 6u Pass
Pass Pass
Opening lead: Six of x
Sometimes you can prepare an endplay where the opponents must give you the tricks necessary to fulfill your contract. On many occasions, however, you have to rely on a lucky distribution.
The double fit made the South hand stronger than its point-count indicates so, once North raised hearts, South asked for aces with Key-Card Blackwood, where the king of trumps counts as a fifth ace. North's response showed 0 or 3 of the five "aces" and South had no doubt which, so he settled in the small slam in hearts.
West led the six of spades, and South saw immediately that the unfortunate distributional duplication in the black suits placed the slam in jeopardy. Declarer won the spade lead in hand with the king and drew trumps in two rounds. After cashing the ace of diamonds, declarer crossed to dummy with the ace of spades and ruffed a diamond. The king and ace of clubs were cleared, both defenders following, to complete the groundwork for the endplay.
While it might be tempting to exit with a spade, that would not work. Even if the defender who won was forced to concede a ruff-sluff, that would still leave declarer with a club loser. Instead declarer exited with clubs and struck gold. In with the club, East was down to nothing but diamonds and, on the forced diamond return, declarer was able to discard the losing spade from hand while ruffing on the table. While it may be better to be lucky than good, a combination of the two is unbeatable.
& copy; 2004, Tribune Media Services