East-West vulnerable. North deals.

East-West vulnerable. North deals.

NORTH

x9 6

uK Q

vA Q J 10 2

wA K Q 5

WEST EAST

xJ 4 xQ 10 3

uJ 10 9 6 5 3 2 uA

v9 vK 8 7 5

w7 6 4 wJ 10 8 3 2

SOUTH

xA K 8 7 5 2

u8 7 4

v6 4 3

w9

The bidding:

NORTH EAST SOUTH WEST

1v Pass 1x Pass

3w Pass 3x Pass

3NT Pass 4x Pass

5u Pass 5x Pass

Pass Pass

Opening lead: Nine of v

Whether declaring or defending, don’t take your eye off the ball. Even the simplest of contracts can be the victim of a goal-line fumble. Consider this deal from the recent ACBL Summer North American Championships, held in Las Vegas.

North was a trifle aggressive. If South held six solid spades, he could have bid a natural four no trump over three no trump. If he held the ace of hearts, he could have bid four hearts. The result was an iffy contract in a major suit at the five-level.

West led the nine of diamonds and the contract was immediately under pressure. Declarer could not risk the finesse, so won the trick with the ace and overcame the next hurdle by cashing the ace and king of trumps and getting a favorable break. Next, declarer cashed three rounds of clubs and all was still well when both defenders followed, allowing declarer to keep the lead in dummy as he discarded two diamonds from hand.

The next move was to take a ruffing finesse for the king of diamonds. The queen was led from the table, East covered and declarer ruffed. Anxious to get back to discard his potential second heart, declarer led a low heart to the king and ace. East returned a club, declarer ruffed and led a heart to the king -- curtains. East ruffed and exited with a club, and declarer had no entry to dummy to cash a high diamond for a heart discard.

The disaster was easy to avoid. After the ruffing finesse in diamonds had succeeded, all declarer needed to do was give the defenders their trump trick. Then there would have been no way for the defenders to stop declarer from getting to dummy with a heart and the ace of hearts and queen of trumps would have been the only two tricks for the defense.

2008 Tribune Media Services