BRIDGE

BRIDGE

North-South vulnerable, South deals.

NORTH

xK 10 6 4 2

uK 7 3

v10 7 6

wK 6

WEST EAST

xQ J 9 3 x8 7

uVoid uA 10 9 4

vQ J 5 4 3 v8 2

wQ 7 5 4 wA J 10 9 3

SOUTH

xA 5

uQ J 8 6 5 2

vA K 9

w8 2

The bidding:

SOUTH WEST NORTH EAST

1u Pass 1x Pass

2u Pass 3u Pass

4u All pass

Opening lead: Queen of v

In the Senior Teams at last month’s World Championships in Poland, the Egyptian team defeated the favored Norwegian team, in part due to the play of Samir Salib, South in today’s deal.

A club lead would have defeated the contract, but the actual diamond lead was very reasonable. Salib won the first trick with his ace and planned the play. He didn’t have enough entries to dummy to handle a possible 4-0 trump split, so he led the jack of hearts from his hand. This revealed two certain trump losers and his chances appeared quite slim.

East won his ace of hearts and returned his remaining diamond, won by declarer with the king. Salib played the ace of spades and a spade to the king, then ruffed a spade as East discarded a club. A trump to the king was followed by another spade ruff as East shed another club. It would not have helped East to ruff. Salib now cashed his queen of hearts and exited with a heart to East’s 10. With only clubs remaining, East had to give dummy the king of clubs, which was also an entry to the long spade. A beauty!

This contract could have been defeated, after the diamond lead, by an unusual play. East, after winning his ace of hearts, needed to play the jack of clubs (or the 10 or nine). This would give dummy the king, but it would also create an entry to the West hand to eventually cash the jack of diamonds.

2016 Tribune Content Agency