BRIDGE

BRIDGE

North-South vulnerable, South deals

NORTH

xA 8 5

uK Q 5 4 2

v8 5 3

w6 3

WEST EAST

xVoid x9 7 6 2

u10 9 8 6 u7 3

vJ 9 7 4 2 vA K Q 10 6

wK J 9 7 w4 2

SOUTH

xK Q J 10 4 3

uA J

vVoid

wA Q 10 8 5

The bidding:

SOUTH WEST NORTH EAST

1x Pass 2x Pass

3w Pass 4x Pass

5u Pass 6x All pass

Opening lead: Four of v

The slam is excellent, needing only a 2-2 or 3-1 trump split to be cold. When this deal was played in a tournament, many declarers went down when the trumps split 4-0. Zoly Nagy, from Adelaide, Australia, found the winning line.

Nagy ruffed the opening diamond lead and led the king of spades, getting the bad news. He followed by cashing the ace of clubs and then leading a low club. West won and continued with another diamond. Nagy ruffed this, ruffed a club with dummy’s ace of spades, and then drew all of the outstanding trumps. This was the position before the last trump:

NORTH

xVoid

uK Q 5 4 2

vVoid

wVoid

WEST EAST

xVoid x9

u10 9 8 6 u7 3

vVoid vA K

wK wVoid

SOUTH

x10

uA J

vVoid

wQ 10

West was helpless when the last spade was led. A heart discard and all of dummy’s hearts would be good. A club and declarer’s clubs are good. Nicely played.

Nagy’s line of play is very strong. He will succeed with 3-3 splits in either hearts or clubs, when a doubleton king of clubs comes down, or when the same defender holds both the long hearts and the long clubs. Holding a void in spades, West is quite likely to hold at least three cards in both hearts and clubs.

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