Neither vulnerable. South deals.

Neither vulnerable. South deals.

NORTH

x6 4

uA 8 6 3

vK Q J 10

wJ 9 4

WEST EAST

xJ 10 9 7 2 x8 5 3

uK Q 9 4 uJ 10

v7 4 vA 6 5 2

wK 2 w8 6 5 3

SOUTH

xA K Q

u7 5 2

v9 8 3

wA Q 10 7

The bidding:

SOUTH WEST NORTH EAST

1NT Pass 2w Pass

2v Pass 3NT Pass

Pass Pass

Opening lead: Jack of x

Falsecarding is a delicate art. Winning a trick with the wrong card can give away more than you want!

With a balanced 15 points and all his strength concentrated in the black suits, South had an awkward bidding problem. While an opening bid of one no trump with two suits unstopped was not a thing of beauty, opening one club could lead to even worse problems, and the no-trump game was reached in short order.

South won the opening lead of the jack of spades with the ace and led a diamond to the ten and ace. East shifted to the jack of hearts. Declarer allowed it to win as West carefully followed with the four (winning would have been no better), and East continued with the ten to the queen and dummy’s ace. Declarer tried the club finesse. West took the king and two more hearts — down one.

How did East know to shift to a heart at trick three rather than revert to spades? Declarer’s play to the first trick told the defense to look for greener pastures!

When South won the first trick with the ace of spades, the position of the remaining spade honors became an open book. The opening lead of the jack of spades marked declarer with the queen — West would have led the queen from a holding headed by the king-jack-ten. But declarer, holding ace-queen but not the king, could not afford to falsecard with the ace lest West’s lead was from the ace-jack-ten. That might have invited defeat of a possibly laydown game.

Since declarer must have the three top spades, continuing that suit was futile and, with West marked for at least four hearts by the auction, that suit offered the most promise. Had declarer simply won with the queen, East would probably have continued with spades, hoping partner led from A J 10.

SCrt 2009 Tribune Media Services