East-West vulnerable. West deals.

East-West vulnerable. West deals.
NORTH
Void
A Q 4
Q J 10 7 2
A 10 7 6 2
WEST EAST
K Q J 10 6 5 4 3 7
J 10 8 9 7 3
8 5 K 9 4 3
Void Q 9 8 5 4
SOUTH
A 9 8 2
K 6 5 2
A 6
K J 3
The bidding:
WEST NORTH EAST SOUTH
4 4NT Pass 5
Pass 5NT Pass 6
Pass Pass Pass
Opening lead: King of
If you look at the local club's trophy, you won't find Trump Coup Tommy's name. While he does well on those hands where trumps break badly, he bungles too many relatively easy hands to win anything. Here's another example of his peculiar talent.
North's four no trump was a two-suited takeout and Tommy's cue-bid asked North to choose the suit. With equal length in his suits, North passed the buck to Tommy, who bid six clubs. Had North held a red two-suiter he would have corrected to diamonds, Tommy would have bid six hearts, secure in the knowledge that that was North's other suit. East knew enough about Tommy not to double.
West led the king of spades, ruffed in dummy. The queen of diamonds was run and, when that held, Tommy switched to a low club and finessed the jack, West's spade discard bringing a gleam to Tommy's eyes. He cashed the ace of diamonds, crossed to the ace of hearts and led the jack of diamonds covered by the king and ruffed by Tommy.
Tommy cashed the king of hearts and the queen of hearts was the entry to the table to cash the 10 of diamonds, on which Tommy discarded his last heart, and follow with the fifth diamond. Since East was down to nothing but trumps, he was forced to ruff. Tommy overruffed with the king and exited with the ace of spades, trumping in dummy. East overruffed, but then had to lead a club away from Q 9 into dummy's A 10. Tommy lost only a trump trick.
& copy;2007 Tribune Media Services
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