bridge

bridge

Both vulnerable. South deals.

NORTH

xA 9 7 3

u9 5 4

vQ 6 4

wA Q 5

WEST EAST

xK Q J x10 8 5 4 2

uJ 8 6 3 u7

vK 10 9 3 2 vJ 8 5

w7 w9 8 3 2

SOUTH

x6

uA K Q 10 2

vA 7

wK J 10 6 4

The bidding:

SOUTH WEST NORTH EAST

1u Pass 1x Pass

2w Pass 3u Pass

4NT Pass 5u Pass

6u Pass Pass Pass

Opening lead: King of x

Beware of hands that look too easy for words. The shoals of distribution are waiting to wreck the careless mariner.

North-South bid intelligently to reach an excellent slam contract — a 3-2 trump split would have permitted declarer to claim 12 tricks. Note that the slam was reached in short order despite the fact that South’s rebid was a simple two clubs on a hand with excellent trick-taking possibilities, but the possibility of a misfit dictated caution.

Declarer won the opening lead of the king of spades in dummy and immediately started on trumps. When East discarded a spade on the second round, it dawned on South that chances of losing a trick in each red suit were good. Indeed that proved to be the case — down one. Try it.

Actually the slam is makeable on this lie of the cards. At trick two, declarer should ruff a spade and only then test trumps. When East shows out on the second round, there is really just one realistic hope of landing the slam — West had to have started with exactly three spades and the king of diamonds!

South continues by cashing the queen of hearts and then crosses to dummy with the queen of clubs to ruff another spade. Now declarer starts to run the clubs. To prevent declarer from scoring 12 tricks by force, West must ruff a club somewhere along the line. But the West hand has been reduced to nothing but diamonds and now must lead away from the king into South’s combined ace-queen tenace, and the diamond loser vanishes!

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