bridge

March 26, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

bridge

Both vulnerable. South deals.

NORTH

xQ 6 5 4 2

uK J

vA K 7

w7 5 4

WEST EAST

xA 10 9 xK J 8 7

u7 6 4 u3

vJ 8 6 5 vQ 9 4 3

wQ J 10 w9 8 3 2

SOUTH

uA Q 10 9 8 5 2

v10 2

wA K 6

The bidding:

SOUTH WEST NORTH EAST

1u Pass 1x Pass

3u Pass 4v Pass

4NT Pass 5u Pass

6u Pass Pass Pass

Opening lead: Queen of w

Here’s another deal from Eddie Kantar’s prize-winning series “Thinking Bridge.”

“South has an eight-winner hand so the jump to three hearts is justified. Four diamonds was a slam-try cuebid agreeing on hearts and North-South were playing “five-ace Blackwood.” In this version, the king of the agreed suit, hearts, counts as an ace. Using this method, the partnership needs at least four of the five ‘aces’ to bid a slam.

“Put yourself in declarer’s shoes. You see a fast spade loser (a loser either opponent can take when on lead) and a slow club loser (a loser that eventually will be lost if you don’t do something about it). The idea is to work on getting rid of slow losers. Probably the No. 1 technique is to throw them on an established winner(s) in dummy.

“You have to set up dummy’s fifth spade to get rid of your losing club. After winning the ace of clubs, concede a spade immediately while all dummy’s entries are in place, and win the likely club return.

“Cross to dummy with a heart and ruff a spade high, merrily counting spades. The opponents started with seven; after you concede one, they have five. After you ruff one, they have three. Notice the numbers getting smaller. Return to dummy with a heart and ruff a spade. Now they have one.

“Draw the last trump, enter dummy with a diamond and ruff a third spade. They are out of spades and dummy’s last spade is high and can be used to discard your club loser. Three tips: (1) Start the long suit early, (2) count their remaining cards in the long suit and (3) use trump entries before side-suit entries before establishing a long suit in dummy.”

For more about “Thinking Bridge” and other Kantar writings, go to www.kantarbridge.com.

2010 Tribune Media Services