BRIDGE

East-West vulnerable. West deals.
NORTH
x A Q 10 3
u K J 8 6
v Q 6 5
w J 8
WEST EAST
x K J 8 6 x 9 5 2
u 4 u 7 5
v A K 9 7 4 v 10 3
w K 4 2 w Q 10 7 6 5 3
SOUTH
x 7 4
u A Q 10 9 3 2
v J 8 2
w A 9
The bidding:
WEST NORTH EAST SOUTH
1v Dbl Pass 4u
Pass Pass Pass
Opening lead: King of v
If there is a distribution that will allow you to make your contract, go for it. An extra down trick or two is a small price to pay for fulfilling your contract.
The auction was over quickly. West had a sound one-diamond opening bid, North's take-out double was impeccable and South could hardly bid anything less than four hearts. That ended the auction.
West led the king of diamonds and, in response to East's encouraging 10, continued with the ace of diamonds and another, and East's ruff completed the defensive book. East returned the six of clubs, and declarer was faced with the problem of avoiding the loss of a club for the setting trick. There was only one hope -- a double finesse in spades. True, the odds of that succeeding, in theory, were 3-to-1 against, but that was improved somewhat by the fact that West was likely to hold the king for his opening bid. Even so, if neither finesse succeeded South was paying a mere 50 points for the chance to get home.
There was no point to pussy-footing around. Declarer rose with the ace of clubs and immediately led a spade to the ten, which held. Two rounds of trumps were drawn, ending in hand, and the queen of spades was finessed. When that won, declarer cashed the ace of spades for a club discard and claimed the rest of the tricks with trumps.
& copy; 2005 Tribune Media Services
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