bridge

bridge

North-South vulnerable. South deals.

NORTH

x4 3

u9 7 4 3 2

v7 3 2

wA Q 4

WEST EAST

xQ 10 9 7 6 2 xA J 8 5

uK uQ 6

vQ J 10 8 v4

w10 9 wJ 8 7 5 3 2

SOUTH

xK

uA J 10 8 5

vA K 9 6 5

wK 6

The bidding:

SOUTH WEST NORTH EAST

1u 1x 2u 4x

5u Pass Pass Pass

Opening lead: Ten of x

If possible, choose to lose your tricks at an opportune time. It can be crucial to landing or losing your contract.

A competitive auction ended when South bid five hearts. There is an old precept that the five-level belongs to the enemy, but East-West were wise to sell out for another reason. Even if the sacrifice cost only 300 points, declarer guessing to drop the king of spades if given the chance, North-South were still a 3-to-1 favorite to win the rubber!

East won the opening lead with the ace of spades and, noting declarer’s king, shifted to a diamond. Declarer won with the king and cashed the ace of trumps and, when both defenders followed, declarer’s attention was focused on avoiding the loss of a diamond trick. That could be accomplished if the defender with the remaining high trump also held no more than two diamonds.

The king, ace and queen of clubs were cashed, declarer discarding a diamond from hand. Next, a spade was ruffed in the closed hand and the ace of diamonds was played off to reveal the 4-1 split. East chose not to ruff the high diamond, but that only postponed the inevitable by a trick when declarer then exited with a trump. East won, but had nothing but black cards remaining. No matter which suit East returned, declarer would ruff in hand while sluffing dummy’s remaining diamond. Since dummy was now down to nothing but trumps, declarer claimed the rest of the tricks.

2011 Tribune Media Services