BRIDGE

BRIDGE

Both vulnerable, South deals

NORTH

xA J 9 2

uA 9 5 4

vQ 8

wA 5 2

WEST EAST

x8 7 xQ 6 5 4 3

uK Q 2 u10 6

vK J 10 9 3 2 v7 6 4

wQ J w10 8 4

SOUTH

xK 10

uJ 8 7 3

vA 5

wK 9 7 6 3

The bidding:

SOUTH WEST NORTH EAST

1w 1v Dbl- Pass

1u Pass 4u All pass

-Negative, showing 4-4 in the majors on this specific auction

Opening lead: Queen of w

South opened the bidding on skinny values, but it looked like North had him covered when he put down a 15-point dummy. West found a terrific opening lead. A lead in any other suit would cost a trick, and it left South with some work to do.

The opening club lead was won in dummy with the ace. There was a certain club loser, and a possible diamond loser, so declarer had to try and hold the trump losers to one. There were several possibilities. It was possible that one opponent held the king-queen doubleton or West could have a singleton trump honor. There was also the possibility of an intra-finesse -- a rarely used play that might be the winner on this deal.

South decided to give up on a singleton trump honor with West and combine his other two chances. At trick two, South led a low trump from dummy to his eight, losing to West’s king. So far, so good. West continued with another club to South’s king and it was now decision time for declarer. South could lead a low heart to dummy’s ace, hoping that West had started with the king-queen doubleton. The alternative was to lead the jack of hearts, hoping West started with king-queen third and East the doubleton 10.

There wasn’t much to go on, but South had only read about intra-finesses in bridge books. This was his first chance to pull one off at the table, so he took a deep breath and led the jack of hearts. Success!

Tribune Content Agency