Thanks to Gene Benedict of Toledo for this interesting problem hand. After what appears to be a very normal auction, West, who would very much like to lead a diamond for his partner, leads the jack of clubs.
Declarer can count three club tricks after East discards the ten of diamonds at trick one. Two diamond tricks are certain, but if West holds up with his major suit aces, there could be a serious problem reaching any of dummys major suit tricks.
At trick two declarer plays the king of spades, which holds. At trick three, the queen of spades also holds. The six of spades is covered with the ace and East discards a small diamond.
West continues with the ten of clubs. Declarer wins and plays the king of hearts, which is allowed to hold. East plays the five. The four of hearts is next. West knows for sure that East started with a club void and two spades. He assumes that the five of hearts was not the lowest heart in East's hand, so he is trying to show an even number of hearts. If East has four hearts and seven diamonds, then South only has a doubleton heart and West can safely play the ace at this point.
West again gets off lead with a club. South wins with his last club winner and calls for a heart from the dummy. Here is the end position at this point:
Declarer needs to win three of the last five tricks. Do you see the winning play? South should lead the four of diamonds and play the seven from dummy. East must win. If he refuses, declarer can claim the balance. Winning, however, is not much better. Any return allows declarer to reach the good tricks in dummy. Incredibly, any other play by declarer results in defeat.
When you know one opponent is void in two (or three) suits, think about setting up an end play to force that opponent to lead a specific suit to your advantage.
Unit 125 of the American Contract Bridge League will hold the Rock and Roll Regional Bridge Tournament at the Holiday Inn, 6001 Rockside Road, Independence, from January 14 to 18.
A bracketed knock out team event will start each morning, except Sunday, at 9:00 a.m. Team and pair events for players at all levels will start at 1:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. every day except Sunday. "Stratiflighted" team events will start at 11:00 a.m. on Sunday.
Special events for non-life master players will be held each day. The player with the best record in this series will receive special recognition.
For any other information, call (330)468-6569 or visit the
unit's web site at http://www.whistclub.org
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Bernstein is
a free-lance writer in Solon.