BRIDGE

BRIDGE

East-West vulnerable, South deals.

NORTH

xK J 10 7

u5

vA Q J 7

wA Q J 5

WEST EAST

x3 x8 6

uA Q J 8 7 2 u10 9 6 3

v9 8 6 vK 5 2

wK 10 3 w7 6 4 2

SOUTH

xA Q 9 5 4 2

uK 4

v10 4 3

w9 8

The bidding:

SOUTH WEST NORTH EAST

2x Pass 4NT Pass

5v Pass 6x All pass

Opening lead: Ace of u

Today’s deal is from a Youth competition in Australia. South was Jarrad Dunbar, from South Australia.

West shifted to the eight of diamonds at trick two, causing Dunbar to believe that the king of diamonds was in the East hand. He rose with dummy’s ace, drew two rounds of trumps, and cashed the king of hearts discarding a diamond from dummy. Dunbar led a club to dummy’s jack, pleased that this held the trick, and then ran three more spade tricks. This was the position:

NORTH

xVoid

uVoid

vQ

wA Q 5

WEST EAST

xVoid xVoid

uVoid uVoid

v9 6 vK

wK 10 w7 6 4

SOUTH

x9

uVoid

v10 4

w9

Dunbar cashed his last spade and discarded the queen of diamonds from dummy. What could East do? He had to keep all three clubs to prevent the five in dummy from becoming a winner, so he pitched his king of diamonds, hoping West held the 10. As West had also shed a diamond on the last spade, both of Dunbar’s diamonds were now good and he didn’t even need to take the club finesse again.

2016 Tribune Content Agency