bridge

bridge

North-South vulnerable. North deals.

NORTH

xQ J 10 6 2

uA K 7

v7 5 2

wQ 3

WEST EAST

x8 4 xK 7 3

u9 8 3 2 uVoid

v3 vK J 9 8 6 4

wK J 9 5 2 wA 10 8 6 4

SOUTH

xA 9 5

uQ J 10 6 5 4

vA Q 10

w7

The bidding:

NORTH EAST SOUTH WEST

1x 2NT 3u 5w

5u 6w 6u Pass

Pass Pass

Opening lead: Three of v

Many years ago, we came across this quotation: ”It makes no difference who you are; it’s all the same, somehow.” East-West found that to be true on this deal.

North’s bid of five hearts showed a reluctance to defend, so South decided that there was unlikely to be a substantial penalty at the six-level and so elected to bid on — a reasonable gamble.

West led his singleton diamond, East’s jack losing to the queen. East discarded a diamond when declarer led a trump to the king, and a relatively simple contract suddenly posed quite a problem. South was up to the task.

The queen of spades was run and, when it held, declarer repeated the finesse, East correctly withholding the king. Three more rounds of trumps forced East to discard two more diamonds and a club. Declarer cashed the ace of spades, he played off the remaining two trumps, carefully retaining the Q 3 of clubs along with a diamond on the table. On the last of these East had no safe discard. Down to K 9 of diamonds and A 10 of clubs, East could not discard a diamond and could not afford to hold on to the ace of clubs lest declarer exit with a club to force a diamond return into the A 10 tenace.

Despite East’s heroic discard of the ace of clubs, declarer’s club exit still landed the slam. West was down to nothing but clubs, and could do no better than win the king of clubs and return the suit, and the table’s queen became the fulfilling trick.

2012 Tribune Media Services