North-South vulnerable. West deals.

North-South vulnerable. West deals.
NORTH
A K 9 4 2
K 7 6 4
J 6 2
2
WEST EAST
Q 5 3 J 8 7
A 10 9 3 2 J 8
4 Q 10 7 3
A K 9 8 Q 10 7 6
SOUTH
10 6
Q 5
A K 9 8 5
J 5 4 3
The bidding:
WEST NORTH EAST SOUTH
1 1 Pass 2
3 3 Pass Pass
Pass
Opening lead: King of
The late Victor Mollo of London, had a cast of fascinating members at his bridge club whose exploits he chronicled. Two of them, the Rueful Rabbit who knew all the conventions but seldom applied then correctly, and his archnemesis, the Hideous Hog, a technically fine player with a rather unfortunate character streak, were East and South, respectively, on this deal from a board-a-match team game.
Against three diamonds West led the king of clubs and the Rabbit encouraged by following with the seven. West continued with the ace, ruffed in dummy. Preparing for a crossruff, the Hog led a heart to the queen. West won with the ace and shifted to his singleton trump, low from dummy and the queen from the Rabbit -- third hand high!
For the Hog, the hand was now an open book. West was marked with at least nine cards in the rounded suits and, from the play, a doubleton or tripleton 10 of trumps. So he won with the king of trumps and continued with the ace. West's heart discard was a rude shock. There was no way the Hog could come to more than nine tricks -- he had to concede two clubs, a heart and a trump.
After a similar start at the other table, East played the 10 of diamonds on the trump shift. Declarer won, ruffed a club in dummy, cashed the king of hearts and ace-king of spades, ruffed a heart, and ruffed his remaining club. He still had to concede a trump trick, but that was 10 tricks in the bank and a won board.
& copy; 2007 Tribune Media Services
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