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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Bridge



 (The Spokesman-Review)
Bobby Wolff United Features Syndicate

The bidding on today’s hand was short and sweet; the play in six no-trump was more complex.

After winning the club lead in hand, declarer counted six top winners in the black suits, with no chance for more. Therefore, he would need to find a way to bring in six winners from the red suits.

As a first move he played a heart to dummy’s jack, and when it held the trick, South cashed the heart ace. Since the heart king did not drop, he fell back on cashing the ace and king of diamonds. If the suit had broken, there would have been 12 top winners now, and if East had held the diamond length, there would have been a simple finesse for the contract. But as it was, the 4-1 diamond division with West having the length reduced the trick total to 11.

However, there was a simple recourse. Because the heart king and long diamonds were known to be on his left, declarer was able to play off all of his black-suit winners. In the process (after taking two tricks in each red suit and three in each black suit), he had reduced the hand down to a three-card endgame. West was obliged to keep two diamonds and the heart king to avoid conceding the 12th trick without a struggle. But this only delayed the inevitable. South could simply play his heart queen to West’s king, forcing a lead into the Q-10 of diamonds for the slam-going trick.

Bid with the aces

South holds:

•A Q 4
•Q 4 3
•Q 10 5 2
•A K 2
SouthWestNorthEast
1 •PassPass
?

Answer: Double, rather than bidding one no-trump. In this sequence, in balancing seat a call of one no-trump would show 12-15 points, not a full strong no-trump like this. Double first, then bid no-trump to show a strong no-trump.