Both vulnerable. South deals.

Both vulnerable. South deals.
NORTH
A K 8
A J
A 9 7 6
K J 10 7
WEST EAST
Q 10 5 J 9 4 3
9 7 6 2 10 5 4 3
10 8 3 K Q 5
8 5 4 6 2
SOUTH
7 6 2
K Q 8
J 4 2
A Q 9 3
The bidding:
SOUTH WEST NORTH EAST
1 Pass 1 Pass
1NT Pass 4 Pass
4 Pass 6 Pass
Pass Pass
Opening lead: Five of
When planning an endplay, you usually need to remove all idle cards from the opponents' hands. That is not always possible, but a partial elimination could work if the right hand is stripped of exit cards. Consider this deal.
Note that North placed the final contract in clubs although South had not explicitly shown four clubs. However, the auction marked him with four cards in the suit. After the one diamond response, since South could neither bid a major nor raise diamonds, he did not have four cards in any of those suits and, ergo, had to have at least four clubs. With a ruffing value in hearts, North opted for the suit slam.
West led a spade, and declarer's problem was obvious -- to avoid losing two diamonds. Since one of dummy's trumps would have to be used to ruff a spade loser, a full elimination would not be appropriate, so a partial elimination was the solution.
Declarer won the opening lead in dummy, cashed the ace of spades and ace, king and queen of hearts, discarding the table's spade loser. South ruffed a spade in dummy and cashed the queen and king of clubs, then exited with a low diamond from the board.
East won with the queen but, since the remaining club was in the West hand, the defender was trapped. A diamond would allow declarer to win in hand with the jack, and a heart or a spade would allow declarer to discard a diamond from hand while ruffing in dummy. Either way, the slam was home!
This 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;2006, Tribune Media Services
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