bridge

bridge

Both vulnerable. South deals.

NORTH

xA K J 4

uK Q 10 4 3

v6

wJ 5 3

WEST EAST

x8 7 6 2 xQ 10 9 5 3

u8 7 5 uVoid

vJ 8 4 3 vA 10 9 7 2

w8 7 w9 4 2

SOUTH

xVoid

uA J 9 6 2

vK Q 5

wA K Q 10 6

The bidding:

SOUTH WEST NORTH EAST

1u Pass 3u Pass

3x Pass 6x Dbl

6NT Pass 7NT Dbl

Pass Pass Pass

Opening lead: Two of x

Beware of playing at an opponent’s tempo. You could get caught with the short end of the stick!

Looking at the two top spade honors, North should have suspected that South’s three spades was a cue-bid with a void, not natural. Even if it were, there was no reason to leap to slam in spades rather than hearts — the known fit. The East hand certainly looked like a winning lottery ticket and South removed to six no trump, at which contract 12 tricks were available. But North felt he had not yet shown his all and proceeded to seven no trump. East saw no reason not to increase the size of the gain.

Sitting South was the legendary P. Hal Sims, one of the fastest analysts in the history of the game. Without a moment’s hesitation he won the first trick with the king of spades and cashed the ace, discarding the five and king of diamonds from hand. Next came five rounds of clubs, on which dummy’s diamond and low spade were ditched, followed by four rounds of hearts, ending in dummy. Sims had carefully arranged to come down to the three of hearts and jack of spades on the table, while East held the queen of spades and ace of diamonds and declarer held the deuce of hearts and king of diamonds.

When South now led the three of hearts, East had no idea which heart spot declarer held. Since the three looked low, East elected to discard the queen of spades, confident that South would have to win the trick and concede a diamond to the ace.

Unfortunately for the defense, that was not the case. Dummy scored the last two tricks with the three of hearts and jack of spades. Just another routine grand slam.

2011 Tribune Media Services