Fatal Illusion

2^nd February – Board 12: North/South Vul. Dealer West.

Several pairs hit the top spot during the bidding on the featured hand but missed out on a play which would have led to a successful conclusion. There are perhaps many routes to the correct slam depending upon one’s system but the one given below couldn’t be criticized.

West	North	East	South
2C	No	2D	No
2H	No	3D	No
3S	No	5S	No
6S	End

I think it is correct to start with 2D over 2C because a jump to 3D initially would lead to an awkward rebid for East after a 3H bid by his partner. However after having started slowly, once his partner bids 3S East must do more than feebly raise to game and a jump to the five-level seems about right. West has an easy raise to the six-level and North will lead the queen of clubs. How should declarer proceed? What happened several times was that declarer played off two top trumps, discovered the bad news and entered dummy with a diamond. Needing the heart finesse to succeed the queen of hearts was led but when South covered, perforce, and the suit broke badly, declarer could not manage to ruff out both heart losers. Leading the queen was a fatal illusion. As it was necessary for South to hold the king of hearts a low heart would have done just as well but the difference now is that when the king appears declarer only needs one ruff to set up the suit. He wins the ace, crosses to the queen, comes back to hand with a club and ruffs a heart in dummy. Now he re-enters his hand with a trump and keeps playing hearts. In the fullness of time North will make his spade jack, but that is all.