bridge

bridge

Both vulnerable. South deals.

NORTH

xK 10 8

uQ J 6

vA 10

wK Q 6 4 3

WEST EAST

xQ 6 x7 4 3 2

uK 8 7 4 3 2 u10 5

v9 8 4 2 vQ J 3

w2 wA 10 8 5

SOUTH

xA J 9 5

uA 9

vK 7 6 5

wJ 9 7

The bidding:

SOUTH WEST NORTH EAST

1v Pass 2w Pass

2NT Pass 3NT Pass

Pass Pass

Opening lead: Four of u

It is not often that you can fool a world champion into taking the wrong line when he is declaring a hand. The late Paul Soloway was the victim on this deal when Carlos Lucena of Argentina came up with a brilliant bit of deception.

The auction was routine. South’s two-no-trump rebid described a minimum, so North had no interest beyond game. West led a low heart, ducked in dummy and declarer captured East’s ten with the ace. A low club to the king lost to the ace and a heart was returned. Routine defense would have been for West to win the king and either clear hearts or shift to another suit. It would then be safe for declarer to finesse West for the queen of spades, assuring the contract whether it won or lost -- declarer would score at least three spade tricks and two in each of the other suits. West did neither -- he allowed declarer to win the trick with the queen of hearts!

Soloway continued with a club to the jack, on which West discarded a diamond. On the next club West parted with another diamond. Convinced by the ducking play that West had started with five hearts, declarer now saw a way to make nine tricks regardless of which defender held the queen of spades. Assuming that West was down to three cards each in spades and hearts Soloway cashed the king and ace of diamonds and exited with the queen of hearts, expecting West to score three heart tricks and then return a spade. Unfortunately, West scored four hearts to beat a laydown game.

2011 Tribune Media Services