South’s five-club bid is perfectly reasonable. He did not know whether or not four spades was making — it wasn’t — but five clubs might also make and it could not be a very expensive sacrifice. In the right hands, it turned out to be quite a good contract.
West found the most effective lead of a trump, preventing any real chance of ruffing two hearts in dummy. South’s first thought was that he would need a successful diamond finesse to make his contract. After a bit more thought, he realised that the diamond queen was just an illusion. A low diamond would have done as well. He won the opening trump lead in hand with the ace, cashed the ace of diamonds, and led the queen of diamonds. West won with the king and led another club, won in dummy with the queen.
South now ruffed a diamond, crossed back to dummy with the ace of hearts, and ruffed another diamond. This felled the jack and established dummy’s 10 as a winner. He conceded a heart to the defence, ruffed the spade shift in hand, and ruffed a heart in dummy. He discarded his remaining heart on dummy’s 10 of diamonds and claimed his contract. Nicely played!
Published – January 09, 2025 09:00 am IST
