A Little Help from My Friends
By WBF In 15th World Bridge Series, Articles On 30th September 2018
Every time you make a bid you offer up information – and in the final of a world championship you can expect your opponents to take full advantage. This was the last deal of the second session:
East led the 
7 and West took the ace and switched to the 
10,covered by the king and ace. Declarer ruffed the next diamond in dummy, played a heart to the king, pitched a club on the K, ruffed a spade, returned to dummy with a trump and ruffed a spade. With the elimination complete he decided to run the 
J and East won and returned a club for one down. With East having kept silent over the weak notrump declarer not unreasonably went for the idea of playing West for the AQ and East the 9.
It was a surprise when East decided to convert his partner’s double; 4 would be odds on to make. Still, 4
had to made and were West to find a low club lead declarer would have no chance. However, West started with the 9 and declarer ruffed the second diamond, took two rounds of hearts and then played the J. West took the ace and exited with a spade and declarer won with dummy’s king pitching a club, ruffed a spade, went to dummy with a trump and ruffed a spade to reach the same position as his counterpart. He played a club to the king and exited with a low club, to endplay East for +590 and 12 IMPs.
