Open book

East-West vulnerable, South deals

September 22, 2018 04:02 pm | Updated 04:02 pm IST

ACOL Contract Bridge Hand. With  a balanced hand And 15 to 19 points first open one of a suit, then rebid no trumps.

ACOL Contract Bridge Hand. With a balanced hand And 15 to 19 points first open one of a suit, then rebid no trumps.

North-South were using the “weak” no trump. The opening bid showed 12-14 points. This is a popular treatment in many parts of the world. South was Russian expert Alexander Petrunin.

West did not have an appealing shift after leading the ace of spades. He tried a low heart, which Petrunin let run around to his jack. A heart to dummy’s ace was followed by the king of hearts, drawing the trumps, as West shed a diamond. Petrunin cashed dummy’s king of clubs and then led the nine of clubs. He ducked this to West’s 10 when East showed out.

End-played for the first time, West chose to lead the jack of diamonds. Petrunin won this in hand with the queen and then ruffed a club in dummy. The hand was an open book. West would surely have led another spade at some point if he had one, so West’s original distribution had to be 1-2-5-5. Petrunin cashed dummy’s last trump, discarding his remaining spade. West could not defend the position. A club discard would make both of South’s clubs good, so he discarded a diamond instead. Certain of the position, Petrunin led a diamond to his ace and exited with his last diamond. West won with the king but was end-played for the second time. Holding only clubs, he had to lead a club into South’s ace-jack and Petrunin had his game. Nicely done!

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