Contract Bridge

This deal, reported in The Bridge World magazine, presents some points of interest. To begin with, the bidding did not make much sense. South’s bids were made in the light of his knowledge that North was an inveterate overbidder -- as indicated by North’s leap to four spades opposite a forced response.

Even so, we think South should have bid at least two spades initially to show a good hand, rather than jump to six later on to make up for his previous underbid.

East’s double was questionable, as it might have pointed the way for declarer to make the slam by disclosing the trump situation.

Declarer did make the slam

despite the bad breaks in both black suits. West led the king of hearts and shifted to the king of diamonds. South won with dummy’s ace and played the ace of trumps, disclosing the 4-0 trump break.

Another trump lead brought the ten from East and the king from South. After ruffing a heart in dummy, declarer picked up East’s J-8 of trumps with the aid of a finesse, creating this position: South cashed his last trump, and West was squeezed in three suits. He could not afford a club discard, and if he discarded the heart ace, South would cash the queen, squeezing West again. Similarly, if West discarded the diamond queen, South would cash the jack to continue the squeeze.

Sometimes, it seems, it pays to overbid!