Source: IBPA Column Service NOV 2021
Tim Bourke
Tim Bourke
**Source: wikipedia. Tim Bourke “is an Australian bridge player and writer. His joint project with Justin Corfield “the Art of Declarer Play” won the International Bridge Press Book of the Year award in 2014. IMPs Dealer South. Both Vul
— 10 8 6 2 A 8 6 5 K 9 7 5 2
A Q 8 7 A K Q J 9 K 10 2 Q
West North East South
1
2 4 Pass 4NT1
Pass 52 Pass 6
Pass Pass Pass
  1. Roman Key-Card Blackwood
2. 1 key card South reasoned that his partner would hold four or five trumps and a shortage somewhere and declarer’s money was on the singleton or void being in spades. West led the five of trumps against the slam. Declarer won this in hand with the nine and then advanced the queen of clubs. West won with the ace and exited with a second trump. Declarer was pleased to see that East followed. Now South pinned all of his hopes on clubs being four-three and ruffed a spade in dummy. After discarding a low diamond on the king of clubs, declarer ruffed a club and got the bad news that the suit was five-two. South’s next move was to ruff another spade and when East followed with yet another low spade declarer had to concede that he was one trick short of his contract. Dummy was unimpressed when declarer complained of his misfortune. Dummy retorted: “Instead of ruffing a spade at trick four, you should cash the king and ace of diamonds. Then, after using the king of clubs to discard your remaining diamond, ruff a club in hand. You would get the bad news that clubs were five-two, but this would be good news as well; when West discards a spade, this reveals his likely distribution as 6=2=3=2. So, after ruffing a spade in dummy, a diamond ruff in hand establishes a diamond trick in dummy. All that would then remain for you to do would be to ruff a second spade in dummy and discard your queen of spades on the good diamond.

The complete deal:

— 10 8 6 2 A 8 6 5 K 9 7 5 2
K J 10 9 6 4 7 5 9 4 3 A 8 5 3 2 4 3 Q J 7 J 10 6 4 3
A Q 8 7 A K Q J 9 K 10 2 Q

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