BRIDGE

Bridge heading

Andrew Robson

I SUSPECT that it is easy to miss the critical play on this week's deal: cover up the East- West hands and see if you can make 64 on +C) lead, and don't forget to look at the bid- ding before you formulate your strategy.

4A 3 2 V A Q 4 3 2 44 VK J 9 8

• K Q3 2 • Q J 109

• J 9 • 8 3 2

47 6 V 10 7

• 10 8 • 7 6 5 7 4 5 4

N

W E

4K QJ 109 8 V6 5

• A 6

• AKS The Bidding

South West North East

24

double redouble 3* pass pass pass

64

pass pass pass South was propelled into slam by his part- ner's exotic leap to 54; North had undoubtedly upgraded his VQ into VK in the light of West's take-out double of 24. He may have failed to realise the irritation value of his +32 — denying South a second dummy entry outside Vs. South won West's +0 lead and considered how to make the two extra tricks he needed for his slam. VQ looked certain to be one, but the other could only come from a V winner by virtue of dummy's length — difficult given that West's double of 24 strongly implied hold- ing 4Vs. Declarer spotted the solution he ducked a V completely at trick two. The defence returned a • (nothing works bet- ter); South won, led two top trumps from his hand and followed by leading his last V and successfully finessing dummy's queen; he ruffed a low V, crossed to 4A (drawing East's last trump) and cashed VA and the established fifth V, discarding his two minor suit losers. West's contribution to this deal was less than inspired. He made a fatuous take-out double of 24; it was high- ly unlikely his side could outbid South, and his bid allowed North to re-evaluate his holding and South to make a slam that he would otherwise not have made (let alone bid). With no opposition bidding, the cor- rect line of play in 64 is to take a first round V finesse, winning over the chosen line when East holds VKxx. Finally, had West led •K instead of +0, South would have had no winning line.