Neither vulnerable. West deals.

Neither vulnerable. West deals.

NORTH

x7 5 4

u8 6 3

vA K Q J 10

wA 5

WEST EAST

xA 8 3 x6

uA K Q 10 7 uJ 9 4 2

v9 6 5 v4 3

wK 6 wQ J 10 8 3 2

SOUTH

xK Q J 10 9 2

u5

v8 7 2

w9 7 4

The bidding:

WEST NORTH EAST SOUTH

1u 2v 2u 2x

3u 3x Pass 4x

Dbl Pass Pass Pass

Opening lead: King of u

Taking the auction into account, West came up with a well-reasoned defense to beat South’s spade game. However, better declarer play would have thwarted even that effort.

After a competitive auction, South bought the hand at four spades. West’s double can only be accounted for by the fact that West was aware of declarer’s limitations!

West led the king of hearts, on which East contributed the nine to start an echo showing an even number of cards in the suit — in this case obviously four because of East’s heart raise. With all the high cards in hearts and diamonds accounted for and South marked with the rest of the spade honors by the auction, West reasoned that East almost surely held the queen and jack of clubs to justify any action, so at trick two West shifted to the king of clubs.

Declarer won with dummy’s ace and led a trump to the king. West pounced with the ace and reverted to clubs, East winning with the ten. Now East had to decide whether to persevere with clubs or revert to hearts. He reasoned that, since West surely knew whether a second heart would cash or not, would continue with a third club. West ruffed with the eight to complete a one-trick set.

Good as the defense was, it should never have been permitted to succeed. All declarer needed to assure the contract was to allow West’s king of clubs to hold the second trick. Now West would have no way to get East on lead for a club ruff.

SCrt 2009 Tribune Media Services