BRIDGE PUZZLE

TAKE YOUR TIME

East-west vulnerable. South deals.

Opening lead: Queen of ♠

North-south had a combined 34 high-card points and each hand had a five-card suit. On many days, with those conditions, 12 tricks would be a certainty and there would be good play for 13. These hands, however, were completely “mirrored” with identical distributions. Even 12 tricks depended on picking up the clubs without a loss. A normal 2-1 split in clubs would make that a breeze, but three missing cards will split 3-0 an annoying 22 percent of the time. It is necessary to start clubs with the right high card just in case of a 3-0 split. Which defender was the most likely to have started with three clubs?

Declarer on this deal was a wily veteran. He saw that there would never be 13 tricks on this deal, and a spade loser was inevitable. Hoping to gain some useful information, he played a low spade from both hands at trick one and allowed the queen to win the trick. He won the spade continuation with dummy’s king and led a spade to his ace, East discarding a diamond. Three rounds of hearts came next and East again discarded a diamond. South’s patient play had discovered that West started with 5-5 in the major suits.

West only had three minor suit cards so declarer cashed his ace of diamonds. West followed suit, so East became the only defender that could hold three clubs. A club to the king confirmed the club position and South claimed his slam. Well done!