bridge

bridge

Both vulnerable. South deals.

NORTH

x5

uJ 4

vA 7 6

wA K J 10 9 5 2

WEST EAST

xQ 8 3 xK J 10 6

uK 10 7 6 uQ 9 8 5 3 2

vK J 9 4 vVoid

w8 6 w7 4 3

SOUTH

xA 9 7 4 2

uA

vQ 10 8 5 3 2

wQ

The bidding:

SOUTH WEST NORTH EAST

1v Pass 2w Pass

2x Pass 3w Pass

3v Pass 4v Pass

4u Pass 5w Pass

5v Pass Pass Pass

Opening lead: Six of u

Looking at just the North-South cards, six diamonds is a reasonable undertaking. With all four hands in view, even five diamonds is in jeopardy. South found a neat play that caught West napping.

North-South were playing a two-over-one response as an absolute game force. Even so, South bid aggressively by cue-bidding four hearts — that could easily have gotten the partnership overboard.

Against five diamonds, West led a low heart. Declarer won in hand and, after a few moments thought, led a low diamond and covered West’s four with the six! When East discarded a heart, declarer played off three rounds of clubs, discarding two spades from hand. West ruffed and shifted to a spade. Declarer took the ace, ruffed a spade in dummy, cashed the ace of diamonds and then continued with a high club, discarding the remaining spade from the closed hand. West could ruff or not, but two trumps were all the defenders could collect.

What if the six of diamonds had lost to East? Declarer would win any return, cash the ace of diamonds and, leaving the high trump outstanding, revert to clubs, continuing the suit until a defender ruffed with the last outstanding trump. There would still be a trump in dummy to protect against spade losers and to serve as an entry to the good clubs.

Did you spot West’s error? Had the defender inserted the nine on the first round of trumps, the game cannot be made. Try it.

2012 Tribune Media Services