bridge

bridge

Both vulnerable. South deals.

NORTH

xA K 7 6

uJ 4

vA K Q 4

w7 5 3

WEST EAST

x9 8 4 2 x3

u10 uQ 9 8 7 5 3 2

vJ 10 7 6 5 v3

w9 4 2 wA J 8 6

SOUTH

xQ J 10 5

uA K 6

v9 8 2

wK Q 10

The bidding:

SOUTH WEST NORTH EAST

1NT Pass 2w 2u

2x Pass 4v Pass

4u Pass 4NT Pass

5v Pass 5u Pass

6w Pass 6x Pass

Pass Pass

Opening lead: Ten of u

Two teams of U.S. internationalists competed in the finals of the Baze Senior KO Teams at the recent ACBL Fall North American Championships held in Seattle. This deal proved to be decisive.

After a strong notrump opening bid, North-South brushed aside East’s overcall and reached six spades. Careful play by Mark Feldman for the Larsen team brought home the bacon.

Declarer won the opening heart lead in hand with the ace, cashed the queen and jack of trumps and, on learning of the 4-1 split, started on diamonds. When East’s discard on the second diamond revealed that the defender was dealt two singletons, declarer played off the remaining high diamond, then ruffed the table’s last diamond with the ten. He crossed to dummy with a trump, bringing about this position:

xA

uJ

v --

w7 5 3

x9 x --

u -- uQ 9

vJ v --

w9 4 2 wA J 8

x --

uK 6

v --

wK Q 10

When declarer now cashed the ace of trumps, East was helpless. A heart discard allows declarer to win two heart tricks and a club permits declarer to force out the ace of clubs and score two club tricks.

At the other table the Kasle squad collected 800 from three hearts doubled but lost 12 IMPS on the deal and the match by 18 IMPs. But had the slam failed ...

2012 Tribune Media Services