BRIDGE

BRIDGE

North-South vulnerable, South deals

NORTH

xA J 10 4

uK J 4

vA 8 6 5

w9 6

WEST EAST

x8 3 x9 7 5 2

u6 3 uA 10 7

v9 3 2 vQ J 10 4

wA 10 8 7 3 2 wK J

SOUTH

xK Q 6

uQ 9 8 5 2

vK 7

wQ 5 4

The bidding:

SOUTH WEST NORTH EAST

1u Pass 1x Pass

1NT Pass 4u All pass

Opening lead: Eight of x

The club’s Saturday night duplicate was in the late stages and Hard Luck Louie thought he had a chance to win when this deal came up. Louie was sitting East.

Declarer won the opening spade lead in his hand and led a low heart to dummy’s king. Louie won with his ace and shifted brilliantly to the king of clubs. He continued with the jack of clubs to his partner’s ace, and was delighted when partner continued with a third round of clubs. South, however, was one of the club’s best players and he read the position perfectly. He ruffed the third club with dummy’s jack of hearts and led the remaining low heart to his nine, finessing Louie out of his 10. ”Nicely played,” Louie said to South. ”Just my luck to play this deal against you. No one else would have made it.”

Lucky Larry also sat East. When declarer led a heart to the king at trick two, Larry ducked. South continued with dummy’s jack of hearts. Larry won this with his ace and also found the shift to the king of clubs. Another club to his partner’s ace and Larry scored his 10 of hearts on the third round of clubs for down one.

Note that the declarer against Larry made a subtle error. Had he continued with a low heart from dummy, rather than the jack, there would have been no beating him. In all fairness, this was very hard to see and many would have done the same thing.

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