The Bridge Column

His two-heart contract looked easy, but this was duplicate, where overtricks are crucial. Louie won the opening spade lead and went after the clubs by leading a low one from his hand. West accurately stepped up with his queen of clubs and shifted to a diamond. The good diamond spot cards enabled Louie to hold his diamond losers to one by ducking in dummy and later leading a diamond to dummy’s eight. One loser in each suit left Louie with an overtrick he was proud of.

Lucky Larry was also the declarer in two hearts after the same auction. Larry got the same queen of spades lead, but he decided to duck it. West continued with a spade to East’s king, but Larry ducked this also! East shifted to a club, but Larry stepped up with his ace, discarded a club on the ace of spades, and ruffed a club.

Larry cashed dummy’s ace of hearts and crossed back to his hand with the king of hearts. Another club ruff established the clubs, thanks to the lucky 3-3 split. Larry gave a trump trick to East, but he could claim the balance. Larry’s two long clubs provided discards for two diamonds in dummy and Larry had emerged with two overtricks and a splendid score on the board. Well played!