BRIDGE

WEDNESDAY, MAY 18, 2022

South dealer. East-West vulnerable.

This deal occurred in the Life Masters Pairs some years ago. North-South were Kathie Wei and Judi Radin, who reached six notrump as shown. Radin then put on a fine display of cardreading to bring in the slam.

Wei’s two-notrump bid, after employing Stayman, was forcing in the partnership’s methods and asked Radin to further describe her hand. After South’s three-club response, North leaped to the notrump slam.

Radin won the opening club lead with dummy’s king and cashed the K-Q of hearts. She then crossed to her hand with a club and played the A-J of hearts, discarding a spade and a diamond from dummy as East discarded two diamonds. The queen of clubs was then cashed, producing this position:

When South next played the jack of clubs, West and dummy discarded spades. East was also forced to part with a spade in order to guard diamonds.

At this point, Radin knew East had started with three clubs and only two hearts, which meant that most of East’s original hand was comprised of spades and diamonds. Furthermore, East had made two diamond discards when the A-J of hearts were cashed, increasing the likelihood that East had started with at least five diamonds.

Reading the situation perfectly, Radin cashed the A-K of spades and then led a diamond to the nine. East won but had to return a diamond from the K-6 into dummy’s A-Q, and the slam was home.