Neither vulnerable, South deals
NORTH
♠6 2
♥K J 3 2
♦Q 10 6 5 2
♣Q 8
WEST EAST
♠A Q 9 7 3 ♠J 8 4
♥10 4 ♥7 6 5
♦A K J 9 ♦8 7 4
♣K 4 ♣7 5 3 2
SOUTH
♠K 10 5
♥A Q 9 8
♦3
♣A J 10 9 6
The bidding:
SOUTH WEST NORTH EAST
1♣ Dbl 1♦ Pass
1♥ 1♠ 2♥ Pass
3♣ Pass 4♥ All pass
Opening lead: Ace of ♦
The auction gave South ample warning that the king of spades might not be well placed, but he soldiered on bravely anyway. Brave is what we call it when it leads to success. His game try was accepted by North and he now had to find a way to solve the spade problem.
The ace of diamonds opening lead held the trick and West shifted to the 10 of hearts, won in dummy with the jack. One way to solve the spade problem was to find the king of clubs onside, so South hopefully ran the queen of clubs at trick three. No luck there, as West won the king of clubs and led another trump, won in hand by declarer with the queen.
Looking at two almost certain spade losers, South came up with a clever plan. He cashed the ace and jack of clubs, discarding a spade from dummy. A low heart to dummy’s king drew the last outstanding trump, and South led dummy’s remaining spade to his 10. West won with the queen but could do nothing to hurt declarer. A diamond would set up dummy’s queen, so West did the best he could by leading a low spade away from his ace. South was not fooled and discarded a diamond from dummy, winning with the king in his hand. He ruffed his remaining spade in dummy and claimed the rest. Nicely played! (12/27/17)