bridge

bridge

Both vulnerable. South deals.

NORTH

xJ 7 4

u6 3 2

vJ 10 4

wA Q J 3

WEST EAST

xA 10 6 2 xVoid

u9 5 4 uJ 10 8 7

v9 8 7 v6 5 3 2

w8 6 5 wK 10 9 4 2

SOUTH

xK Q 9 8 5 3

uA K Q

vA K Q

w7

The bidding:

SOUTH WEST NORTH EAST

2w Pass 2v Pass

2x Pass 3x Pass

4NT Pass 5v Pass

6x Pass Pass Pass

Opening lead: Nine of v

Moat bridge mots make sense. Among those are “Lead low toward high cards” and “If you hold three honors in the combined hands, lead toward the hand containing the two honors.”

South’s opening two clubs was artificial and forcing and North’s two-diamond response was a waiting bid. Thereafter the bidding was natural, and North-South came to rest in the small slam when South learned that an ace was missing.

West led a diamond, taken in the closed hand. It looked as if the slam could be claimed, but when declarer followed the first part of the above advice and led a low spade to the jack, which won, East showed out and declarer had to lose two trump tricks. Switching the East-West trump holdings and heeding the second nugget of our introduction by leading a club to the ace and a spade to the king would have fared no better — should West show out on this trick, declarer must again lose two spade tricks.

The correct way to tackle trumps is to ignore both pieces of advice. Since only a 4-0 trump split poses a problem, declarer should lead a trump honor from hand at trick two. If East fails to follow, declarer continues with a low trump and finesses the seven. If West shows out, declarer next leads a trump to the knave in dummy, and then can get back to the table with the ace of clubs to take the marked finesse for the ten of trumps. Too easy for words.

2011 Tribune Media Services