With Bob Jones
North-South vulnerable. South deals.
NORTH
S-K 10 8 6
H-Q 9 2
D-5 2
C-A 10 9 2
WEST EAST
S-4 2 S-Q J 5
H-A 5 3 H-J 10 7 6 4
D-6 4 D-10 9 3
C-J 8 7 6 5 4 C-Q 3
SOUTH
S-A 9 7 3
H-K 8
D-A K Q J 8 7
C-K
The bidding:
SOUTH WEST NORTH EAST
1D Pass 1S Pass
4NT Pass 5H- Pass
6D Pass Pass Pass
-Two key cards, no queen of spades
Opening lead: Six of C
South fell in love with his hand after partner’s one-spade response. This can be a dangerous thing to do, but he was too good for a mere raise to four spades.
North-South were using Key Card Blackwood, where the king and queen of trumps can be shown in addition to the four aces. Should there be no explicitly agreed trump suit, as here, then the last bid suit is presumed to be trumps. This does not establish the “agreed” suit as the final trump suit, but the responses show the honors in that suit.
North’s response showed two of the five “key” cards, meaning two aces or one ace plus the spade king, and it also denied holding the spade queen. This meant that there were two likely losers in a contract of six spades. Undaunted, South bid six diamonds, hoping there was a way to avoid the slow spade loser.
Fortune favors the bold, as they say, and South’s aggressive bidding was rewarded when West proved to hold the ace of hearts. South won the opening club lead in hand, drew trumps in three rounds and led his eight of hearts toward North’s queen. West was caught in a classic “Morton’s Fork Coup”. Should he withhold his ace, North’s queen would win and South’s king of hearts would be discarded on the ace of clubs. Taking his ace was no better, as South would now be able to discard spades from hand on both the ace of clubs and the queen of hearts. Six diamonds, bid and made!
An unlikely spade lead at trick one would disrupt the entries for the Coup and defeat the contract.
(Bob Jones welcome readers’ responses sent in care of this newspaper or to Tribune Content Agency, LLC., 16650 Westgrove Dr., Suite 175, Addison, TX 75001. E-mail responses may be sent to
.)
(c) 2014 Tribune CONTENT AGENCY, LLC.
