Two lines of play, each of which works

Sigmund Freud said, “From error to error one discovers the entire truth.”

Bridge players make lots of mistakes. Bridge writers ought to make far fewer, if only because there is software to help with deal analysis.

When I read about today’s deal, the author said that if declarer in four spades played to ruff hearts in the dummy after the trump lead, he would fail. Is that true?

South was right to open one spade despite having only 11 high-card points. He had the majors, two aces and an easy rebid. He also had a seven-loser hand (two spades, two hearts, one diamond and two clubs) should partner have a fit for one of the majors. North described a game-force with three-card spade support. (In two-over-one game-forcing, North would have rebid two spades, and South would have jumped to game with his minimum opening.)

First, South checked his losers. He had none in spades, three in hearts, one in diamonds and one in clubs — two too many. But then he wisely counted winners if he did ruff two hearts on the board. He saw five spades, one heart, two clubs and those two ruffs — 10 in all.

Declarer won the first trick with dummy’s spade king, played the heart queen to the king and ace, ruffed a heart low, played a club to his ace and ruffed another heart. Then he could have either led the club queen to establish his second trick in the suit or exited with a diamond to open up a channel to his hand with a diamond ruff so that he could draw trumps.