The Bridge Club appears to be back in full swing after the visits by Fay and Gonzalo and the Club will be working towards the Christmas Party and Prizegiving on Saturday, December 6. Before that we have the Novice Pairs on Tuesday the 18th followed by the Ernie Owen Individual on the evening of Friday the 21st.

The hand this week is fairly simple but a ton of declarers will get themselves in knots in the play.

Dealer West E/W Vulnerable

North

? 642

? none

? 87642

? AKJ104

West East

? QJ5 ? 98

? AK82 ? QJ1053

? AQ105 ? 93

? 96 ? 8752

South

? AK1073

? 9764

? KJ

? Q5

The Bidding:

West North East South

1NT Pass 2D 2S

3H 4S Pass Pass

Pass

East’s 2D bid was a transfer to Hearts and opener could risk the three Heart bid with that great support. Once South bid Spades North had and easy raise to game.

West led the Heart Ace ruffed by declarer in dummy. Some declarers tried ruffing Hearts in dummy by getting to hand with a Club and then trying a Diamond but that was a doomed line after West had opened 1NT. What declarer has to do is draw trumps in order to use the Club suit but if he plays out three rounds of trumps he will lose three Hearts, a Spade and a Diamond.

The answer is quite simple … at trick two declarer simply plays a low Spade to the 10 letting West win. Now he still has control of the Heart suit and the defence can’t hurt him — he wins any return, now draws trumps and cashes the Clubs making the contract with 5 Clubs, 4 trumps and a Heart ruff in dummy. All of that adds up to 10 tricks!