BRIDGE

BRIDGE

Both vulnerable, South deals

NORTH

xK 7 4

uJ 10 5 2

v8 5 3

wA Q 3

WEST EAST

x10 8 5 3 xQ 9 6

uVoid uA 8 7 6

vK 2 vA J 9 4

wK 10 9 8 5 4 2 w7 6

SOUTH

xA J 2

uK Q 9 4 3

vQ 10 7 6

wJ

The bidding:

SOUTH WEST NORTH EAST

1u 2w 3w- Pass

4u All pass

-Heart fit, invitational or better

Opening lead: 10 of w

An annual event in Great Britain is a bridge match between teams representing the House of Lords and the House of Commons. Today’s deal is from one of those matches. South was Michael Mates MP.

Mates played low from dummy on the opening club lead and won in hand with the jack. He led the king of hearts to East’s ace, getting the bad news about the 4-0 split. East continued with another heart to dummy’s 10. Mates could have succeeded at this point by leading a diamond to his 10 and later a diamond toward his queen. He didn’t know this, of course, so he tried a partial elimination instead. Mates led a spade to his jack, cashed the ace of spades, and led a spade to dummy’s king. He then cashed dummy’s ace of clubs, shedding a diamond from his hand, and ruffed the remaining club.

Both declarer and dummy were down to two trumps and three diamonds. Mates exited with a low diamond and what could West do? If she (Baroness Openheimer) played low, she would eventually have to win the second diamond and yield a ruff-sluff. She defended well by rising with the king of diamonds and continuing the suit. This would have been the winning defense had East started with the ace-queen of diamonds rather than the ace-jack. Mates held the queen, however and that card became the game-going trick. Well done!

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