BRIDGE PUZZLE

TRICKY SLAM

Both vulnerable. East deals.

Opening lead: Queen of ♦

Today’s deal is from a recent online game. South was Swedish expert Ida Gronkvist. The deal is an example of what happens when two players, intent on showing partner their extra values, end up in a high-level contract with an inadequate trump fit. Occasionally, these stories have a happy ending.

Gronkvist won the opening diamond lead with her ace and cashed the king of clubs. Expecting a poor trump split after the preempt, she led a low heart to dummy’s 10! Good start. She continued with the ace of hearts and learned just how bad the split was. She cashed the ace of clubs and led a low club, ruffing with the eight of hearts when East discarded a diamond.

She cashed her king and queen of hearts, leaving herself with no trumps. She made one more great play when she led a low spade to dummy’s 10!

Another winning finesse for a jack. She now started to run dummy’s good clubs. West could ruff whenever he wanted, but the queen of spades remained as an entry to the rest of the clubs. Should West wait a long time to ruff, Gronkvist would have to discard her high spades, but West could do nothing to defeat the contract provided Gronkvist kept her eight of spades as an entry to dummy.

Beautifully played!