bridge

bridge

Both vulnerable. South deals.

NORTH

x9

uK J 10 9

vQ 9 2

wA K 9 6 5

WEST EAST

xJ 8 6 4 3 xQ 10 7

uVoid u7 6 5 4 3

vJ 6 5 4 3 v10 7

w10 8 7 wQ J 4

SOUTH

xA K 5 2

uA Q 8 2

vA K 8

w3 2

The bidding:

SOUTH WEST NORTH EAST

2NT Pass 3w Pass

3u Pass 4NT Pass

5w Pass 5x Pass

6w Pass 7u Pass

Pass

Opening lead: Four of v

Although barely an average player, except on those occasions when trumps broke badly, Trump Coup Tommy was a student of the game. He loved adding conventions to his repertoire, which worked well when his partner was in control of the auction but had mixed results when Tommy mishandled them. Among his new gadgets was Roman Key-Card Blackwood, where the king of trumps counted as a fifth ace, and methods were available to find out about the queen as well.

We sympathize with Tommy’s choice of two no trump as the opening bid despite the weak doubleton. There was no way Tommy was going to describe this holding with any other auction. When the Stayman three clubs located the heart fit, North asked for aces. Tommy’s response showed three, and North inquired about the trump queen. By agreement, the second step indicated possession of her majesty, so North elected to contract for all the tricks.

Tommy won the diamond lead in hand and led a trump to the nine. Whereas most mortals would have been perturbed by the 5-0 trump break, Tommy was in his element. He cashed the queen of diamonds, ace-king of clubs and ace-king of spades, discarding dummy’s remaining diamond on the second spade.

The closed hand and dummy were each reduced to three trumps and three side-suit cards. A high crossruff allowed Tommy to rack up the last six tricks while East underruffed the last four of them helplessly, and 13 tricks were in the bag.

2012 Tribune Media Services