BRIDGE

BRIDGE

North-South vulnerable, West deals

NORTH

xK

uK 10 5 2

vA K Q 7 2

wA J 4

WEST EAST

xQ J 10 6 2 x9 8 7 4

uA J 4 u3

vJ 8 v10 6 5 4

wK 8 7 w10 9 3 2

SOUTH

xA 5 3

uQ 9 8 7 6

v9 3

wQ 6 5

The bidding:

WEST NORTH EAST SOUTH

1x Dbl 4x Dbl

Pass 4NT Pass 5u

Pass 6u All pass

Opening lead: Queen of x

South’s double showed values and North was not willing to settle for penalties at this vulnerability. The four no trump bid was for takeout and the raise to slam was a reasonable gamble, hoping to grab the brass ring.

The opening spade lead was won in dummy perforce. The lie of the trump suit was pretty clear. West needed virtually all of the missing points for his opening bid. East had to have a short suit to justify his pre-emptive raise, and that was most likely hearts. The problem was that after South led a trump to the queen, there would be no entry to his hand to finesse West for the trump jack.

South cashed two high diamonds -- the Dentist’s Coup -- extracting West’s safe exit cards, before leading a heart to his queen. West won with the ace and was forced to give South an entry to finesse against the jack of hearts. West chose to lead another spade, which South won in hand with the ace as dummy shed a club. A heart to the 10 was followed by the king of hearts, drawing all the missing trumps. It was then a simple matter to ruff a diamond in his hand, cross back to dummy with a spade ruff, and discard his two lowest clubs on dummy’s diamonds. He didn’t even need the club finesse.

Note that the Dentist’s Coup was crucial. Without it, West could have exited with a diamond and it would have been impossible to take the trump finesse. Well played!

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