BRIDGE

BRIDGE

Both vulnerable, North deals

NORTH

xA 8

uA K

vK Q 6

wK Q J 7 5 3

WEST EAST

xQ 10 7 x9 6 5 4 2

u5 4 uQ 10 7 6 3 2

v9 8 7 3 vJ 5

wA 10 9 6 wVoid

SOUTH

xK J 3

uJ 9 8

vA 10 4 2

w8 4 2

The bidding:

NORTH EAST SOUTH WEST

2w Pass 2NT- Pass

4NT Pass 6NT All pass

-8-10 balanced, no five-card major

Opening lead: Eight of v

Hard Luck Louie was ”pink with pleasure” after recently outplaying Lucky Larry on a hand at the club. He was determined to make that the start of a winning streak.

Louie was happy about the opening diamond lead, giving him a free finesse for the jack. He played low from dummy and captured East’s jack with the ace. He led a low club to dummy’s king, ducked by West of course, and got the devastating bad news. Louie continued playing on clubs, giving West two club tricks and settling for 11 sure tricks. There was nothing else to do.

Lucky Larry played the same contract with the same opening lead. Larry saw that he didn’t need four diamond tricks to make his contract, but he did need five club tricks. This would be child’s play if the missing clubs split no worse than 3-1, so he gave some thought to a possible 4-0 split. Nothing could be done if East held all four missing clubs, but Larry could handle it should West hold all four.

Larry won the opening diamond lead with dummy’s king and led the king of clubs, losing to West’s ace and revealing the 4-0 split. West chose to shift to a heart, but it didn’t matter. Larry won this in dummy perforce and led dummy’s low diamond to his ace and led the eight of clubs from his hand. West covered with the nine and dummy won with the jack. Larry crossed back to his hand with a spade to the king and led his remaining club, finessing West out of the ten to give him 12 tricks and his contract. Sorry, Louie.

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