BRIDGE

March 3, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Neither vulnerable. East deals.

NORTH

xA 4 2

uQ 10 5

vA K Q J 10

w9 6

WEST EAST

xK xJ 10 7

uA 9 3 uK J 8 6 4 2

v9 5 3 2 v7 4

wA Q J 4 3 w10 2

SOUTH

xQ 9 8 6 5 3

v8 6

wK 8 7 5

The bidding:

EAST SOUTH WEST NORTH

2v 2x 3w Pass

Pass 3x Pass 4x

Pass Pass Pass

Weak two-bid in either major

Opening lead: Ace of u

If you were to ask bridge experts for a list of their top 10 pairs, it would not be a surprise to find Jeff Meckstroth and Eric Rodwell at the top of every list! This deal is from a national team championship some years ago.

Meckstroth and Rodwell have a book of notes of hundreds of pages covering every imaginable facet of their system, so we would not advise you to try to adopt their methods. Suffice it to know that they reached the perfect contract. All that remained was to make the contract. To do so South, Rodwell, had to keep East off lead to prevent a lead through the king of clubs.

West led the ace of hearts and continued with the suit, declarer ruffing. A low trump was led, West played the king perforce and South allowed it to win! The contract could no longer be defeated.

Declarer ruffed the heart continuation, drew trumps with the ace and queen and cashed his five diamond tricks to score 10 tricks. Declarer lost only one trick in each suit except diamonds.

Note that should declarer have captured the king with the ace, sooner or later East would have gained the lead with a trump to shift to a club. Declarer would then have to lose two club tricks to go with a trump and a heart — down one.

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