Lucky Break

2^nd July – Board 24. Love All. Dealer West.

We like to think of bridge as a game of skill only but that is far from the case. In theory West did the wrong thing on the hand shown below but in fact he was right!

	North: S A K 10 8 4 H A 10 9 2 D J C 10 7 3
West: S 6 H 5 3 D A Q 8 7 6 5 4 2 C A K		East: S 5 H J 8 7 6 D 10 9 3 C Q J 8 5 2
	South: S Q J 9 7 3 2 H K Q 4 D K C 9 6 4

West	North	East	South
1D	1S	No	4S
5D	Dbl	End

Looking at those North/South hands you can see that there are four top losers in 4S but closer scrutiny shows that there is a blockage in clubs and that by taking a good view in hearts declarer can come to ten tricks. (During the course of the play he should discern that East holds four hearts to West’s two making it twice as likely that he holds the jack.) Whatever the case West is more or les bound to save in 5D which only has three top losers but unless the defenders take their tricks early they will never make them as the club suit will furnish a ton of discards.