Both vulnerable, East deals

Today’s deal is from a team match in Australia more than 10 years ago. It shows how anticipation and resourceful thinking can reap huge rewards at the bridge table. South was Australian expert Bruce Neill. At the other table, after a slightly different auction, East won the opening diamond lead and shifted to the ace of hearts. He continued with a heart to his partner’s king and ruffed the heart return for down one.

At Neill’s table, East also shifted to the ace of hearts at trick two and continued with another heart. West won with his king and did not give his partner a ruff. Instead, he shifted to a low club. Neill let this run around to his queen, drew trumps, and repeated the club finesse. He discarded his remaining heart on the ace of clubs and claimed his contract.

What went wrong for the defense? When Neill saw East shift to the ace of hearts at trick two, he anticipated that East’s hearts were probably ace doubleton. He followed suit with his jack of hearts under the ace and then played his queen of hearts on the heart continuation. West saw the nine of hearts sitting in dummy and did not want to set it up for a possible club discard, so he shifted to a club instead of playing another heart.

First-rate deception by Neill. Well done!