BRIDGE MASTERCLASS

This is an entertaining hard luck story for N-s, who contrived to reach 6 ♠ , foolishly doubled by West — especially foolish when he chose to lead ♦ K instead of ♣ A. south won with the ♦ A, discarding a club from dummy, and immediately ruffed out West’s ♦ Q. he was preparing to claim the contract when the bad trump break was discovered. After three rounds of trumps and the last club discard on ♦ 10, declarer took the losing heart finesse and a club was returned to the king, ace, and ruffed. he then established dummy’s heart suit, but was dismayed to realise that he could no longer reach it! What started as a no-play contract became a racing certainty if trumps had been 2-1, and finally failed because of East’s ♥ 8. It’s worth pointing out that the Losing trick Count is not a reliable guide for slam bidding. In this case, you have only 11 losers between the hands, but that doesn’t mean you should make all 13 tricks.