Thursday, January 2, 2014
TRUMP PROBLEM
North-South vulnerable. South deals
Opening lead: 
6
South won the opening lead in hand and stopped to consider the trump position. The eight and seven in dummy muddied the waters. Without them, South might well have found the winning play of low to the 10, losing to the king, and laying down the ace on the next round of the suit. The extra spot cards allowed for the possibility of leading to dummy’s seven on the first round of the suit. It was a complicated card combination and South didn’t want to tackle it right away.
Declarer started cashing his diamonds, discarding a spade on the third round. West ruffed the fourth round low. Dummy over-ruffed, then played a club to South’s jack. West won and returned the suit to declarer’s ace.
South now led a trump. When the queen appeared from West, the trump position seemed clear —West was either out of trumps or down to the singleton king — but the spade position was not. South next started cashing dummy’s clubs, discarding a spade from hand on the queen. East ruffed the 10 of clubs low. South over-ruffed and played a trump to East’s now bare king. Next came a low spade from East and the key moment had arrived. Our hero guessed correctly, playing the jack, and scored up his game when that forced the ace. Well played!