Lakeland Ledger – 16 Jun 2007
Today’s deal is a conundrum from the Bridge World magazine, surely the best bridge magazine anywhere in the world.
After West’s incisive trump lead against five clubs it is safe to start by overtaking with your club jack (preserving flexibility) cashing the spade ace-king crossing to dummy in diamonds and ruffing a spade.
If the spade queen falls, there is no further problem: if it does not assume East still holds it.
Continue with another high diamond and a diamond ruff high. Let us say that East who started with two diamonds throws a heart in the third round (very likely what will actually happen).
Now exit with a heart. Presumably, this will be won by East. Unless he returns a trump from an original tripleton you will later ruff your heart loser in dummy.
Win East’s trump return in dummy and you now how East’s exact distribution to be 4424. You can presume his high cards from the bidding.
On the lead of the last diamond from dummy, East is squeezed. (Discarding a heart or spade establishes an immediate spade winner or a delayed heart for you. If he trumps in, you can overruff, then crossruff the hand).
Observe the importance of having trump flexibility at this point. If you had won the first trick to dummy, so that in the ending both of your trumps were higher than dummy’s, East could defend successfully by throwing the spade queen now.