BRIDGE

North-South vulnerable. West deals.
NORTH
x A Q 10 6 3 2
u 9 8 5 2
v 9 4
w 8
WEST EAST
x J 9 8 4 x 5
u K 6 u 7 3
v Void v A Q J 8 7 5 2
w A K J 9 7 6 2 w 10 5 4
SOUTH
x K 7
u A Q J 10 4
v K 10 6 3
w Q 3
The bidding:
WEST NORTH EAST SOUTH
1w Pass 3v 3u
4w 4u 5w 5u
Pass Pass Pass
Opening lead: King of w
Some deals allow you to get a perfect count of the distribution. Some are impossible to count completely. In between there are those where you can deduce how the cards lie.
East elected to make a preemptive double jump in diamonds over his partner's one-club opener, forcing South to make a risky decision. Since North was unlikely to be strong enough to reopen the bidding at the three-level, South took the bit between the teeth and bid three hearts. A competitive auction made South the declarer at five hearts.
West led the king of clubs and continued with the ace, dummy ruffing with the deuce as East followed with the four and five. Declarer ran the nine of hearts, losing to West's king, and a trump was returned. Declarer had lost two tricks, so could not afford to lose a diamond trick into the bargain. Looking at all four hands, it is obvious that declarer can take four discards on spades providing that, after he cashes the king of spades, he finesses the ten. But playing for a 4-1 spade division is against the odds. Nevertheless, that is what declarer opted to do, and the contract coasted home. What made declarer follow this line?
The fact that West never led a diamond at any stage of the game combined with East's carding in clubs allowed declarer to deduce that spades were going to break badly. East was marked with seven diamonds and probably three clubs, and had shown up with two hearts, and so had room for only one spade. Since declarer was not working in a vacuum, playing the odds was replaced by a sure-trick line.
& copy; 2005 Tribune Media Services