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Dealer W | ||||||||
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One morning in June, I made the mistake of getting up. I compounded this folly by making my way to the Young Chelsea Bridge Club in London and then by picking up the East cards below:
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In the other room the auction was
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2
was weak, and 4
was `leaping Michaels' showing 5-5 in the blacks. South
cued her ace, and North signed off with two heart losers. My
opposite number found the inspired lead of a club, and two ruffs
and two hearts soon followed. Bad luck to play the game the wrong
way up; worse luck to score up with us...
Our auction went as follows:
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1 was Precision and the 1
response showed 8+, balanced. North then
introduced spades, two natural raises followed and partner, bless
him, made a Lightner double, only to find that he was on lead,
redoubled.
Well, a heart would have been two off, for one of the harder ways to make +600, but he chose a trump.
Declarer drew two rounds, threw a heart on 
A, led a club to dummy, verifying the expected void, and
advanced J. I now had the choice between
allowing partner to win K and have my
A ruffed out (declarer knows from the
lead partner can't have AK), or going up
with the ace and allowing declarer to take a ruffing finesse in
hearts. I chose the latter for -1620.
The next day I stayed in bed. It was a great improvement.
Suit holdings quiz
In no trumps, with plenty of entries to both hands, how do you play:
1. AQxxxx opposite Jx
2. KJxx A9xx safely for three tricks
3. AJxx Q9x for three tricks
4. A8xxx 10xx for maximum number of tricks
5. A8xx J9xx for three tricks
6. Axx opposite QJx
7. Q1098x opposite Axxx
Answers next issue. A suitable prize may be awarded to the best solutions received by either editor before 15th December.