BRIDGE

BRIDGE

Both vulnerable, North deals

NORTH

xA K 9 5

uA 2

v10 7 6 4 2

wQ 2

WEST EAST

xQ 3 xJ 8 6 4 2

uQ J 7 uK 9

vA Q J 9 v8 5 3

wJ 10 8 7 w9 6 3

SOUTH

x10 7

u10 8 6 5 4 3

vK

wA K 5 4

The bidding:

NORTH EAST SOUTH WEST

1v Pass 1u Pass

1x Pass 3u Pass

4u All pass

Opening lead: Jack of w

After a slightly pushy auction, Hard Luck Louie found himself at the helm in four hearts. He captured the opening club lead with dummy’s queen, led a club to his ace, and ruffed a club in dummy. He cashed dummy’s ace of trumps and just needed to get back to his hand to lead another round of trumps. He cashed dummy’s two top spades, intending to ruff a spade back to his hand, but he got nervous when the queen fell from West. Louie led a diamond to his king and West’s ace. West played a fourth round of clubs, allowing East to ruff with the king of hearts. West still had two trump tricks and Louie was down one. ”Sorry partner,” said Louie. ”With my horrid luck, we probably shouldn’t be bidding these really close games.”

Lucky Larry also got to four hearts and faced the same opening lead. Larry foresaw the re-entry problem and was in no rush to ruff a club. He won the first trick with dummy’s queen and immediately led a diamond to his king and West’s ace. West shifted to a tricky low spade, but it didn’t matter. Larry won with dummy’s ace, led a club to his ace, and ruffed a club. Larry cashed dummy’s ace of trumps, crossed to his hand with a diamond ruff, and led a low heart from his hand. The expected 3-2 split in trumps allowed Larry to claim 10 tricks and his contract.

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