Simple is best — Today

Account subscription benefits alongside Premium Stories, Editorials, Opinions and more. Unlock these with Subscription

When this deal was played in a team match, both tables reached four hearts after an opening bid by West and a Michael’s Cue Bid by North. This table had a straightforward auction with South bidding what he hoped he could make. At the other table, they had some fancy bidding methods after the cue bid. They reached the same contract, but played by North, making it easier for EastWest to get a spade ruff. East led a spade to the ace and got a ruff at trick two. Had North, who knew the lead was a singleton from the auction, smoothly dropped his king under the ace, West might not have returned a spade. We’ll never know. Down one at that table.

Here, West led a diamond. South won with dummy’s king, and knowing the defense had a spade ruff available, led a club to his ace. He discarded a low spade from dummy on the ace of diamonds before leading a heart. West stepped up with his ace, cashed the ace of spades, and led another spade South could do no wrong at this point. He would have prevailed by ruffing with either the queen or the seven. He chose to ruff with the seven and then cashed the king. When the jack fell under the king, he crossed to his hand with the 10 of hearts and led a club to make his contract. The simple auction gained big, but there was nothing wrong with the bidding at the other table. It was just bad luck.

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.