BRIDGE

BRIDGE

Neither vulnerable, West deals

NORTH

xQ 8 5 4 3

uJ

vA K 7 5 4 2

w8

WEST EAST

xJ 10 7 xK 9 6 2

uA K Q 8 7 6 5 3 u10 9 4 2

v3 vQ 9 6

wJ w9 7

SOUTH

xA

uVoid

vJ 10 8

wA K Q 10 6 5 4 3 2

The bidding:

WEST NORTH EAST SOUTH

4u 4x Pass 6w

Pass Pass 6u 7w

All pass

Opening lead: Ace of u

Freak hands are a lot of fun in bridge, and they are often accompanied by some wild bidding. North had a difficult bid over four hearts, and his decision to bid four spades would not please everyone. East passed the four-spade bid, thinking he had pretty good defense against that contract. South wasn’t having it, of course, and he bid what he thought he could make. East changed his opinion about his defensive prospects and sacrificed in six hearts. This was a good decision against six clubs, but East hadn’t counted on South continuing to seven clubs. This would be embarrassing to East if the grand slam came home.

South ruffed the opening heart lead and drew trumps in two rounds. He reasoned that he needed three diamond tricks to be successful, but with West probably holding an eight-card heart suit, East was likely to hold three or four diamonds to the queen. What could South do about it?

South decided to run every one of his trumps, coming down to the singleton ace of spades and three diamonds in his hand and the queen doubleton of spades and ace-king of diamonds in dummy. Poor East had to come down to four cards, so he couldn’t keep both spades and diamonds guarded. East kept all three of his diamonds and the singleton king of spades. South read the position perfectly and cashed the ace of spades. The fall of the king made dummy look very good. Had East discarded a diamond, instead, South would have cashed the top diamonds and returned to his hand with a spade. A beautiful crisscross ending.

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