Bridge

Omar Sharif is a very modest bridge player, and in his new book he alleges that there was nothing difficult about today’s deal, from the Cina del Duca tournament in Paris. See what you think.

The auction had seen Sharif show diamonds with longer clubs, reaching the excellent diamond grand slam. How would you have played this contract when West leads the heart five?

Well, if you try the jack or 10 of hearts from dummy at trick one, the slam cannot be made! East will cover with the heart queen, knocking out an important entry to the South hand, and the 4-1 trump break will then defeat you.

Even without making a detailed plan, Omar could see that it was right to play dummy’s heart king on the first trick, since a third heart trick was almost irrelevant to him. To make the grand slam, he would have to set up the clubs, and it was therefore important to conserve entries to the South hand. So Omar won the heart king and continued with the king and queen of trumps, discovering the 4-1 break. After cashing the ace and king of clubs, he ruffed a club with dummy’s diamond eight, pleased to see that the clubs were evenly divided.

He could then draw a third round of trumps with dummy’s bare diamond jack and re-enter his hand with the precious heart ace to draw West’s last trump and cash his good clubs.

“Omar Sharif Talks Bridge” is available from Baron Barclay Bridge Supplies.

Bid with the aces

South holds:

Answer: Jump to three clubs. Reversing into two diamonds (to show 4-5 pattern and real extras) would not be unreasonable, but with such good clubs and poor diamonds, it may be simpler to limit your hand and emphasize your six-card suit. With as little as the diamond jack in addition, the reverse might be preferable.