Bridge Corner
By Gary Mitchell, September 01, 2006

The bidding explained

South would prefer to bid 2 Hearts, but that would promise 10 or more points. Since the South hand does not have 10 points, South can only bid 1NT and hope the bidding comes around to her again. When North shows about 10 cards in Spades and Clubs, and South prefers Hearts, North knows South must have a long Heart suit, so contracts for game in Hearts.

The play

West leads the Diamond Ace and sees East’s Queen. It was obvious to West that South had the rest of the Diamonds. In order to prevent South from trumping them in dummy, West led a trump. East cooperated by winning the Ace and returning a trump. South now has only nine tricks. South pulls the last trump and must make a discard from dummy. I hope South has a plan. West and South both know that East has no more Diamonds. All the trumps are gone. Therefore, East has all black cards left. South needs to guess which black suit is breaking 4–3. Let’s assume South is having a good day and decides on Spades breaking. Then, South must discard a Club on the play of the last Heart. Now, declarer plays a Spade to dummy, plays the top two Spades and trumps the third Spade. She now plays a Club to the Ace and leads a fourth Spade. When East plays the Queen, South discards a Diamond. All East has left is Clubs, and the Club return puts declarer in dummy, where the fifth Spade provides trick 10. Well done!


Questions: gary@smabridge.com 

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