bridge

bridge

Both vulnerable. North deals.

NORTH

xK Q 7 4

uK

vK Q 10 9 2

wA 10 9

WEST EAST

xA 9 x8 3 2

uA 10 9 8 5 3 uQ 7 6 4 2

v8 7 3 v6 5

wK 6 wQ 7 4

SOUTH

xJ 10 6 5

uJ

vA J 4

wJ 8 5 3 2

The bidding:

NORTH EAST SOUTHWEST

1v Pass 1x 2u

3x Pass 4x Pass

Pass Pass

Opening lead: Ace of u

Usually, at trick one there is no way for a defender to give partner a suit-preference signal — his primary duty is to tell partner whether or not he likes the opening lead. The main exception occurs when dummy has a singleton in the suit led. Now an unnecessarily high card shows a value in the higher ranking of the other two plain suits, a low card is for the lower one, and a middling card shows no preference. East-West put this principle to good use on this deal from the Israel Bridge Festival some years ago.

North’s jump to three spades was invitational, based on a distributional hand with a good fit for responder’s suit. Had the king of hearts been, say, the king of clubs, North could easily have shown a stronger raise by cue-bidding three hearts. In either case, South had enough to proceed to the game in spades.

Sitting West was British internationalist Irving Gordon. He led the ace of hearts, and East took advantage of dummy’s singleton to play the deuce, showing a high card in clubs. West promptly shifted to the king of clubs, and declarer was a dead duck.

Holding up the ace of clubs would not help declarer’s cause, since he would then have two club losers. So South won in dummy with the ace and led a spade to the jack and ace. West promptly reverted to a club, and the queen of clubs and a club continuation allowed West to ruff for the setting trick.

2011 Tribune Media Services