TOUGH HANDLING BRIDGE PUZZLE

Neither vulnerable. North deals.

Opening lead: Ace of ♦

South bid too much in this competitive auction and it led to what appeared to be a silly contract. Had South shown his club support at his second turn rather than rebidding his five-card suit, he could have comfortably passed three diamonds – a contract that would have failed by one trick. However, some good luck combined with some good play gave this deal a happy ending for North-south.

South ruffed the second diamond and led a low heart to dummy’s 10 – a good start! Trying to keep some control of the deal, South led dummy’s jack of spades, won by East with the king. East led another diamond and South discarded a heart rather than shortening his trumps again. East led yet another diamond, which South ruffed with dummy’s ace while shedding a low club from his hand.

South ran dummy’s queen of clubs, winning the trick, and then led a low club to his 10. He cashed the queen of spades, the ace of clubs, and led a heart to his ace. In this twocard ending, with dummy on lead, South had the 10-seven of spades sitting over East’s nine-four. He easily took the last two tricks to make his contract. Nicely played! Never mind about the bidding.