BRIDGE

North-South vulnerable. West deals.

NORTH

x8 5

uA 6

vK 8 7 6 2

wA J 10 5

WEST EAST

x9 xJ 10 6

uK J 10 9 7 5 4 3 uQ 2

vQ J vA 10 9 3

w9 8 wQ 6 4 3

SOUTH

xA K Q 7 4 3 2

u8

v5 4

wK 7 2

The bidding:

WEST NORTH EAST SOUTH

4u Pass Pass 4x

Pass 4NT 5v 5x

Pass Pass Pass

Opening lead: Queen of v

This deal, from a pairs event, contains several points of interest. North’s four no trump was ace-asking, and East took advantage of the situation to make a lead- directing bid. Since East had decided to sacrifice at five hearts anyway, the action cost nothing. South’s five spades by agreement showed two key cards, and the queen of trumps, and five spades became the final contract.

West got off to the lead of the queen of diamonds, and declarer could have survived by covering with the king and later guessing the location of the queen of clubs. However, that action would have been wrong had the lead been a singleton rather than a doubleton, so South played low from dummy. When West continued with a diamond, declarer again played low from the table. East had a problem.

There were 12 diamonds accounted for. Since the contract was unlikely to be defeated if South had started with a singleton diamond, East allocated the missing diamond to declarer and chose to rise with the ace of diamonds. When declarer followed, East found the only defense to defeat the contract — he continued with a third round of diamonds!

South had no counter. Ruffing low would permit West to score the setting trick by ruffing with the nine; ruffing high would establish a trump trick for the defense to set the contract. Bravo!

SCrt 2010 Tribune Media Services