BRIDGE with Bob Jones

The auction in today's deal makes some sense through the three-club bid. The three heart and threespade bids are mysterious. My grandmother would be scratching her head. It all resulted in three no-trump being played from the South seat, where it was vulnerable to a heart lead. West, however, reasonably led his best major — a spade. This deal is from a pairs competition, where overtricks can be all important.

South was Swedish expert Per-Ola Cullin. East won the opening spade lead with his ace, cashed the king of hearts to clarify the heart position for partner, and returned a low spade to South's king.

Needing a third club trick, Cullin led the 10 of clubs, covered by West with the queen, and won with dummy's ace. When this worked, he had nine tricks and set out to find a tenth.

He ran five diamond tricks and carefully watched the discards. West could not part with a club, so he discarded his remaining heart and his low spade. Reading the distribution perfectly, Cullin ran the eight of clubs, finessing against the nine!

There was no immediate entry to dummy's clubs, but Cullin exited with a spade to West's queen, using West as a stepping stone to the good clubs. The overtrick was worth a fortune at this form of scoring. Nicely played!