MADEIRA
BRIDGE
Find the lady
Andrew Robson
THE stakes were high and South was play- ing a vulnerable grand slam. He reached the crucial decision point and did the wrong thing. He had overlooked a small but significant clue. Cover up the East- West cards and see if you can succeed.
Dealer North Both Vulnerable South West 34 pass 7+ pass North East 1NT pass 4+ pass pass pass South leapt to the grand slam after catch- ing 4 support, gambling on his partner holding 4A, and West led ♦ 3. At the table, declarer cashed three top ♦ s from dummy, discarding a and two 4s. He led a f to his king and cashed 4A, West following with the ten. Needing to trump his remaining in dummy, he led the low 4 and West fol- lowed with the jack. He had reached deci- sion point: should he trump with dummy's nine, hoping that East has the remaining 4 —the queen— or that if he has no 4s left, West has 410? Or should he trump high, which will work if trumps divide 3-2 (or 4-1 with the 10 singleton)?
Mathematically these choices seem about equal, but there is a sound reason for pre- ferring the first option — trumping with the nine and risking the overruff. If West held the missing +0, his original rl► hold- ing would be QJ102. Would not his open- ing lead have been 40? Therefore it is almost certain that East holds 40, in which case it is clearly correct to trump with 49. East would indeed follow with 4Q, and now it would be a simple matter to draw trumps, starting with dummy's ace, and claim the remainder.
Sadly South missed this inference and trumped with dummy's ace. This promoted East's trump holding into a trick and down went the grand.
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