BRIDGE

BRIDGE

Both vulnerable, North deals

NORTH

xVoid

uK 8 6 4 2

vK Q 7 4 3

w7 5 3

WEST EAST

xJ 8 7 xK 5 3

u10 7 3 uQ J

v5 vA J 9 6 2

wQ J 10 8 6 2 wK 9 4

SOUTH

xA Q 10 9 6 4 2

uA 9 5

v10 8

wA

The bidding:

NORTH EAST SOUTH WEST

Pass 1v 1x 3w-

Pass Pass 4x All pass

-Pre-emptive

Opening lead: Five of v

South’s two high diamond spot cards made it trivial for East to work out that West’s lead was a singleton -- West would not have led low from a doubleton. The opening lead went to the king and ace, and East returned the two of diamonds as a suit-preference card for clubs. West ruffed at trick two and shifted to the queen of clubs.

South won the club shift in hand perforce, cashed the ace of trumps, and paused to think. He needed to hold his trump losers to one, and had to guess how to continue the suit. A low trump would cater to a singleton king at this point in the hand, and the queen of trumps would pin a singleton jack. East was sure to hold the king for his opening bid, which made it clearly correct to play the queen of trumps. This indeed pinned the jack! East won with the king and led the king of clubs, but South ruffed, drew the last trump, and discarded his losing heart on dummy’s queen of diamonds.

Why was the queen of trumps clearly correct? Had East held the singleton king of trumps at that point, he would just win and lead another diamond, promoting West’s jack into the setting trick. Leading the trump queen was the only play that might succeed.

Note that the defense would be better off not getting the diamond ruff. They were always entitled to two trump tricks, and the diamond ruff set up the queen of diamonds for a heart discard.

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