bridge

bridge

Both vulnerable. South deals.

NORTH

xK J 10 6 5

u9

vQ 8 4

wQ J 10 5

WEST EAST

x8 3 2 x7 4

uK Q 10 3 2 u6 5

v10 7 vK J 9 5 3 2

w9 7 6 w4 3 2

SOUTH

xA Q 9

uA J 8 7 4

vA 6

wA K 8

The bidding:

SOUTH WEST NORTH EAST

2w Pass 2v Pass

2NT Pass 3u Pass

3x Pass 4w Pass

4NT Pass 5v Pass

7x Pass Pass Pass

Opening lead: King of u

We are used to looking at the South hand as declarer and the North hand as the dummy. At times, however, it is better to turn the table and look at North as the master hand. Here’s a classic example.

The auction is slightly aggressive. After key-card Blackwood ascertained that all five “aces” (including the trump queen) were accounted for, South bid the grand slam because of the double fit.

Viewed from the South side, the contract is hopeless after a diamond lead — it seems there is an unavoidable diamond loser. But with North as the master hand, the grand slam needs no more than a 3-2 trump break, about a 68 percent chance, plus hearts splitting no worse than 5-2.

Declarer won the opening lead in hand with the ace and ruffed a heart low. He returned to hand with the ace and king of clubs to ruff two more hearts high, then used the queen of trumps as the entry to ruff the last heart high. A diamond to the ace was the entry to draw the last trumps, and dummy’s queen-jack of clubs took the last two tricks. In all declarer scored three trumps tricks, four ruffs in dummy, the two red aces and four clubs!

2010 Tribune Media Services

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