The Rabbi to the Rescue

When the bridge gods are smiling an apparently hopeless situation may be saved in an unexpected way, as on this deal from the final of the Silodor Open Pairs:

Dealer: North Vul: East/West		North
		♠	A 9 2
		♥	K 10 9
		♦	A 6 5 4 3
		♣	8 5
West				East
♠	8 5 4 3			♠	K Q J
♥	A 7 5			♥	6 2
♦	J 2			♦	K Q
♣	J 9 6 4			♣	A K Q 7 3 2
		South
		♠	10 7 6
		♥	Q J 8 4 3
		♦	10 9 8 7
		♣	10

North’s wafer thin double concluded an auction that contained a number of debatable bids.

Declarer took the opening lead of the king of hearts with the ace and played a trump. North took the ace, cashed the ace of diamonds and with a silent prayer switched to the ten of hearts. The Rabbi overtook that with the jack and continued with the queen. When declarer decided to discard one of dummy’s clubs it was clear that the Rabbi’s modest assets included the all important ten of spades. A fourth round of hearts was ruffed in turn by the eight, nine and jack of spades, so declarer was -500, which did not trouble the scorers.