bridge

bridge

Both vulnerable. East deals.

NORTH

xQ 9 7 3

u5 2

vA Q J 10

wA J 5

WEST EAST

x2 xK J 8

u10 9 7 uA K Q J 8 3

v8 6 5 4 v2

w8 7 4 3 2 wQ 10 9

SOUTH

xA 10 6 5 4

u6 4

vK 9 7 3

wK 6

The bidding:

EAST SOUTH WEST NORTH

1u 1x Pass 4x

Pass Pass Pass

Opening lead: Ten of u

At the bridge table, do not submit like a lamb to the slaughter. Dig deep to find a way to avoid the fate your opponents have in store for you.

North’s hand is certainly worth a jump to four spades after South’s one-spade overcall. The West hand will contribute little to the defensive effort, and it should be easy for South to place all the missing cards.

West led the ten of hearts, East overtook with the jack and shifted to the two of diamonds — an obvious singleton. Declarer won the trick in dummy and led the queen of spades, covered by the king and taken with the ace.

There are two obvious lines to try for 10 tricks. One is to lead another trump, hoping East started with only two trumps and will not be able to ruff a diamond. The other is to take a club finesse, intending to discard a heart on the ace of clubs. A glance at the diagram is all that is needed to see that both these methods are doomed.

Declarer found another way. The king and ace of clubs were cashed and the jack was led. Had East followed low, declarer might have ruffed and relied on finding East with only two spades. But when East produced the queen, declarer discarded a heart instead of ruffing! Now there was no way for East to reach his partner to get a diamond ruff, and declarer could force out the jack of trumps at his leisure and score 10 tricks.

2011 Tribune Media Services