BRIDGE

The deal comes from a pairs competition. North used the Gerber convention to check that there were not two aces missing. It was not a very scientific way to bid the hand. He was presumably intending to bid a slam if South held only two aces and in that case there might be two top losers in one of the black suits. How would you play 6NT when West leads the 10 of hearts? Declarer saw that six diamond tricks would give him a total of 13 for the fine pairs score of 1020. The diamond suit could be brought in if the defenders’ cards broke 3-2 or if the jack was singleton. The question was: should declarer make a safety play in diamonds, giving himself the maximum chance of the five diamond tricks that he needed to make the slam? The original declarer decided that not everyone would bid a slam on that North hand. Also, some pairs would play in 6 D, which would score less than making just 12 tricks in 6NT. After winning the heart lead, he therefore led a diamond to the 10. This safety play guaranteed the contract if either defender held J-x-x-x in the diamond suit. When diamonds broke 5-0, declarer went down in the slam despite his safety play. The “super safety play” on the deal is to play a low diamond from both hands. East shows out and you can then finesse the 10 on the second round.