East-west vulnerable, South deals

Opening lead: Eight of ♥

Waleed el-ahmady and Tarek Sadek, both from Egypt, have enjoyed considerable success in North American tournaments over the past 25 years. They were West and East, respectively, in today’s deal. We were not given an explanation of the North-south bidding methods, so it seems to us that North mistook one of his jacks for a king. The final contract was optimistic, but it had chances. There were seven top tricks and declarer would get home if he could develop two spade tricks in addition.

The opening heart lead was ducked in dummy, overtaken with the nine by East, and correctly ducked by South. Had South won and led a spade, West would win and continue hearts. East would have a spade entry and enough heart tricks to defeat the contract. East, however, did not continue hearts. He shifted to a diamond, ducked to West’s queen. West led a heart to dummy’s king and South led a low spade. Sadek, East, rose with his ace to lead another diamond. Declarer was helpless against this defense. It was West’s diamonds, not East’s hearts, that defeated him. Nice defense!

It might seem that it was imperative for East to rise with his ace of spades when he had the chance. Had East ducked his ace of spades. however, West could have saved the day for the defense by also ducking his king!

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