East-West vulnerable. South deals.

East-West vulnerable. South deals.

NORTH

xA 9 2

uA 4 3

vA Q 9 7

w10 6 4

WEST EAST

xQ J 8 6 4 3 xK 10 7 5

uJ 8 5 u10 7 6

vJ 3 vK 10 4 2

wK 5 wA 8

SOUTH

xVoid

uK Q 9 2

v8 6 5

wQ J 9 7 3 2

The bidding:

SOUTH WEST NORTH EAST

Pass 2x Dbl 3x

4u Pass Pass Pass

Opening lead: Queen of x

We continue with deals from Detroit’s Spring North American Championships. This deal is from the final of the Silodor Open Pairs event.

In the words of Samuel Goldwyn, include us out of players who would, at unfavorable vulnerability, open the eight-loser West hand with a weak two-bid in spades. North was too strong not to take some action with his 14-point almost all-prime holding, and the result was a poor heart game on a Moysian 4-3 fit. Before taking South to task, make one of North’s low diamonds a heart, and the contract would be pretty good, needing little more than a 3-2 trump split.

West leads the queen of spades and you see quickly that five clubs requires little more than a diamond finesse to get home. On the other hand, four hearts is unlikely to make if trumps and clubs don’t both split evenly.

Start by capturing the queen of spades with the ace and leading a club. A defender wins and reverts to spades, forcing you to ruff. You knock out the remaining high club and are delighted to find that the defenders cannot negotiate a club ruff.

You ruff the spade continuation in hand, cash the king and queen of trumps and continue with a diamond, spurning the finesse in favor of rising with the ace to cash the ace of hearts. When that fetches both outstanding trumps as you discard a diamond, you can return to hand with a club to run the suit. You score four clubs, five trumps including two ruffs, and two side-suit aces for an overtrick. You must be living right!

2008 Tribune Media Services