BRIDGE

BRIDGE

East-West vulnerable, South deals

NORTH

xJ 10 9 7 2

uJ 4

v9 6 5 3

w10 9

WEST EAST

x8 xK 6 5 3

uQ 9 8 2 u10 6 5 3

vK Q J 2 v8

w7 4 3 2 wA K 8 6

SOUTH

xA Q 4

uA K 7

vA 10 7 4

wQ J 5

The bidding:

SOUTH WEST NORTH EAST

2NT Pass 3u- Pass

3x All pass

-Transfer to spades

Opening lead: King of v

Some of the errors made while playing bridge are very subtle and might not even be discovered in the postmortem.

South won the opening diamond lead with the ace and led a low club to dummy’s 10 and East’s king. South won the heart shift with the ace and led the queen of clubs to East’s ace. Declarer won the heart continuation with his king and cashed the jack of clubs to discard a diamond from dummy. He crossed to dummy with a heart ruff and ran the jack of spades. When this held the trick, South continued with a spade to his queen as West shed a low diamond. Declarer exited with a diamond to West’s jack, leaving this position:

NORTH

x10 9

uVoid

v9

wVoid

WEST EAST

xVoid xK 6

uQ uVoid

vQ vVoid

w7 w8

SOUTH

xA

uVoid

D-10 7

wVoid

West cashed the queen of diamonds, but whatever he led next would pickle his partner’s king of trumps. Should East overruff the dummy, South would overruff with the ace. Underruff and South would discard, taking the last trick with the ace of trumps. This lovely ending is known as a ”Smother Play,” for obvious reasons.

Did you spot the defensive error? West should have discarded a low club on the second spade rather than a diamond. He could then have led the two of diamonds for East to ruff in the diagrammed position.

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