BRIDGE

BRIDGE

Both vulnerable, South deals

NORTH

xJ 7 5 3

u6 4

vA 7 2

w10 9 6 5

WEST EAST

x8 6 4 2 x10

uK J 10 8 uQ 9 7 5 3

vK Q J 9 v8 5 3

w8 wK 7 4 2

SOUTH

xA K Q 9

uA 2

v10 6 4

wA Q J 3

The bidding:

SOUTH WEST NORTH EAST

2NT Pass 3w Pass

3x Pass 4x All pass

Opening lead: King of v

The club’s Saturday night duplicate saw the regulars battling it out. Hard Luck Louie and his partner bid to four spades after a Stayman auction that was duplicated at almost every table.

Louie won the opening diamond lead with dummy’s ace and then led a spade to his ace and cashed the king. The 4-1 trump split was bad news, but it wasn’t fatal. Louie cashed the queen of spades and led spade to dummy’s jack, exhausting all the trumps including his own. Louie then took a deep breath and ran the 10 of clubs. Louie was all smiles when the 10 held and he quickly led a club to his queen. Louie’s smile turned into a grimace when West showed out. There was no entry to dummy to repeat the club finesse and he ended up down one. ”I can’t believe it,” said Louie. ”4-1 splits in both black suits. I should have opened one no trump.”

Lucky Larry declared the same contract with the same opening lead. Larry noted the duplicated distribution between his hand and the dummy. The only chance for his contract was to find East with the king of clubs. Larry won the opening lead with dummy’s ace and immediately led a low club to his queen. When that held the trick, Larry cashed the ace and king of spades. The 4-1 split forced him to cash the queen and finish drawing trumps by leading to dummy’s jack. He also ran the 10 of clubs, but when West showed out, Larry was still in the dummy to lead a club to the jack. Making four!

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