Winner on Winner

Both Vul
IMPs
Dealer: East
Lead: 10

	fun1 J 3 2 10 7 2 10 2 Q J 9 3 2
barkun A 8 5 K 8 6 K 9 5 K 8 7 4		Maestro 9 7 6 A Q J 9 5 4 Q 7 A 5
	NezihG K Q 10 4 3 A J 8 6 4 3 10 6

West Pass 4

North 2 Pass

East 1 2 Pass

South Dbl Pass Pass

Today’s auction is bad, brief and without interest. South’s takeout double is dubious, and West’s pass, with trump support and an opening hand himself, is remarkable. After the strange start, however, E/W reaches the same heart game that was played at about 90% of the tables.

Those of you who can’t see how to go down in 4H are underestimating the power of the winner-on-winner play. Gee wins the club lead with the ace and draws trump in three rounds, ending in his hand, and plays a low diamond to the king, which holds. Declarer now has five tricks in, and still holds the spade ace, three good trump, and the top club.

It’s time to go to work. Gee begins to prepare the winner-on-winner by leading a second round of diamonds to the queen, which loses to South’s DA. South continues clubs, and here Gee makes his first extraordinary play by ducking in both hands. North wins the C9 and shifts to a spade, and Gee ducks again. South continues with the SK. Gee wins the SA, and completes the coup by leading a low club off the board, stranding his CK, and ruffing in hand. Two more rounds of trump fail to induce North or South to part with their spades, and Gee loses a spade at the end to go down one.

The astute reader may wonder why I call this a winner-on-winner play. It’s because Gee tosses his good club king on one of the trump winners, lifting the play into the expert class. Had he saved his CK until the end to throw on the spade loser it would have been a comparatively common winner-on-loser play — still unusual, but scarcely, at this level of play, worthy of note.