bridge

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

bridge

East-West vulnerable. North deals.

NORTH

xA Q 9 7

uQ J 9 3

vK 9 4

w9 7

WEST EAST

x8 6 5 xK 2

u10 2 uK 8 7 5 4

vQ 8 7 5 vJ 6 3 2

wJ 6 5 2 w8 4

SOUTH

xJ 10 4 3

uA 6

vA 10

wA K Q 10 3

The bidding:

NORTH EAST SOUTH WEST

1v Pass 1x Pass

2x Pass 3w Pass

3v Pass 6 NT Pass

Pass Pass

Opening lead: Ten of u

Here’s a deal from the semifinals of the Lebhar IMP Pairs at the recent ACBL Spring North American Championships in Reno. Sitting South was Swedish star Peter Fredin.

North-South bounced into six no trump because of a bidding misunderstanding. West led the ten of hearts, and dummy’s jack was allowed to hold the trick. An unsupported secondary honor from a short major suit is a strange lead against a slam, so South decided that West had some honors in the minor suits and was reluctant to lead from them.

Given this information, what was his best chance for 12 tricks if the spade finesse was going to fail and if clubs were not going to break? It did not take him long to find the answer — he led the three of clubs!

West treated this with great suspicion, but eventually decided that he could not gain by playing the jack. A few seconds later he found out how wrong he was. Declarer returned to hand with the king of clubs, lost the spade finesse and claimed 12 tricks — five clubs, three spades and two in each red suit.

In about a minute, an absolute zero had been turned into an outright top board!

2010 Tribune Media Services