Four spades was reached by way of a very reasonable auction.

West led the ten of hearts. East won the ace at the first trick and returned the three of hearts.

Declarer won with the king and paused to take stock of his contract.

There was a very good possibility that a trick could be lost in each suit which would be one trick too many.

At any rate, trumps were the first order of business. Declarer started with the king to guard against the possibility of a singleton queen.

Both defenders followed low and declarer led a spade to the jack, which held while East discarded a heart. The ace of spades was cashed, leaving the queen of trumps outstanding in the West hand.

The ace of hearts had already been lost and the queen of spades was a certain trick for the defense.

The ace of clubs was a potential loser, as was a diamond trick.

But declarer had a counter play. The five of clubs was led from the North hand and East found himself caught in a Morton's Fork Coup.

The name is derived from Cardinal Morton, Chancellor under King Henry VII of England.

It was Morton's duty to collect taxes for the Kings royal treasury.

His approach towards tax collection was that if the subjects lived well, it was obvious that they had sufficient income to spare some for the king.

On the other hand, if they lived frugally, they must be saving money and therefore could easily afford to pay their taxes.

In either case, the royal subjects found themselves impaled on "Morton's Fork".

And so it was with East. If he ducked the club lead, declarer would win the king.

The North hand would be entered with a diamond to the ace and the queen of hearts would provide a resting place for the last club in declarer's hand, thereby eliminating the club loser.

Winning the ace of clubs was no better. Eventually the queen of hearts and the queen of clubs would become tricks upon which declarer would discard small diamonds, thereby eliminating the potential diamond loser.

Had the West hand held the ace of clubs it would have been necessary for declarer to start clubs by leading towards the North hand first.

So how did declarer know to play clubs the way that he did?

Go back to trick one and two. West led the ten of hearts and followed with the nine at trick two.

This looks very much like a doubleton. East won the ace at trick one and returned the three.

His selection of the three from among five possible cards likely has some meaning. In the event that the ten of hearts was a singleton and West could ruff, East was asking for a club return to gain entry for another heart ruff.

Declarer has only to pay attention in order to be able to make the right play.

How to Play:

There is a chinese say:
'An image is worth 1000 words!'

You may want to take the
Online Player Guided Tour

1 - Bidding: Click the 'Play' button in the middle of the page to display the bidding box.

When you are ready, click the 'Start Bidding' button.

When a bid is alerted, it is shown on a yellow background. You can then click that bid to display the related alert.

When there is a comment or a question about your own bid, you can read it on the bidding box comments pane, and then, click the 'Ok' button to continue bidding.

Click 'Close Bidding Box' to proceed to playing the hand.

2 - Playing: The lead is automatic if you are declarer, otherwise you'll see the 'It's your lead' warning in the center pane.

You will play your cards and dummy's as if you were at a live table.

2.1 -Touching cards are considered equivalent! e.g. if you have 876 and you play the 7 while Vu-Bridge expects you to play the 6, then the 7 will blink and the 6 will be played.

2.2 -Sometimes there will be a comment or question during the play.
You should read it and click the 'Click to continue' button at the top of the comment text.

If its a question, there will be a 'Show Answer' button to click at the bottom of the comment panel.

2.3 - When a comment bears a 'Finish flag' button, you can click it to reveal hidden hands and continue playing. We use this to explain technical coups like end-plays, squeezes etc.

2.4 - You can review the last trick by clicking on the last won or lost trick (back of card) at the bottom of the screen. The last trick will show during 3 seconds and then play will continue.

2.5 - You can click the 'Undo last trick' button at the let of the screen in order to redo one or several tricks and review the attached comments.
You can review the auction by clicking the 'Auction' tab in the same area.
3 - Moving the comment panel:

When the mouse hover the dark green background of the bidding box or the comment panel, you'll see a crosshair cursor and you can drag and move it around the page.

The left and right arrows on the top left corner of the comment panel allows you to increase or reduce the width for better readability.

4 - When a hand is finished, you can click the 'Board List' at the top of the comment panel, and play other hands From the same Series.

To play other Series, visit the Vu-Bridge's home page and click the 'Bridge Hands' button.