BRIDGE

BRIDGE

Neither vulnerable, South deals

NORTH

x7

uA Q 10 3 2

vJ 9 6 4

w10 9 2

WEST EAST

x4 xJ 5 3

uJ 9 7 4 uK 5

vQ 10 8 7 2 vA K 5 3

wK 7 6 wQ 8 5 4

SOUTH

xA K Q 10 9 8 6 2

u8 6

vVoid

wA J 3

The bidding:

SOUTH WEST NORTH EAST

1x Pass 1NT Pass

3w Pass 3u Pass

3x Pass 4w Pass

5x All pass

Opening lead: Four of u

Today’s deal is from a competition in Europe late last year. East was French star Cedric Lorenzini. He has done so well in American tournaments that he won the ACBL Player of the Year award in 2015.

The auction was a bit awkward. South clearly loved his hand and couldn’t bring himself to settle for four spades on his last bid. North had bid both hearts and clubs, so South hoped to catch enough of a dummy to give slam a good chance. North passed as soon as he heard a non-forcing bid.

There is an excellent chance for 11 tricks. On a diamond lead, South would ruff, draw trumps, and lead a heart to the 10 at some point. The heart lead wouldn’t have hurt declarer’s chances very much except for the fact that Lorenzini was sitting East. South played dummy’s queen of hearts on the opening lead, losing to East’s king. Most players would have shifted to a high diamond, but Lorenzini studied the dummy and found the only play to defeat the contract. He led a heart back into dummy’s ace-10!

There was nothing South could do. Should he try to cash another high heart, East would ruff and leave South with two club losers. Declarer took his only shot by leading a club to his jack, hoping that both missing club honors were in the East hand. West won with the king and shifted to a diamond. South had to concede another club to the defense in the end.

Tribune Content Agency