The Bridge Column

A simple auction to a contract that seemed to need the ace of diamonds to be in the West hand. Declarer could then prevail by leading toward the king-queen of diamonds twice. South found an extra chance that made the diamond position irrelevant.

The opening heart lead went to dummy’s queen and East’s ace. East led another heart to the board’s king. South cashed the ace of spades and then led a low club to his ace and another club toward the dummy. Declarer played low from dummy and his chances improved greatly when this lost to East’s queen. East led his remaining spade to dummy’s queen and another low club was led. When the king appeared from East, the diamond position no longer mattered. South was able to ruff this and later discard a diamond from his hand on the jack of clubs, conceding just one diamond to the defense.

An opening diamond lead would have defeated the contract, but West cannot be faulted for leading his partner’s suit. There is an interesting variation if East shifts to a low diamond at trick two. When South cashes the ace of clubs, East must play an honor from his hand. A second club will see West play the nine and South will have no winning choice. Should he play dummy’s jack, he loses that card as a threat. Playing low would allow West to win the trick and lead a diamond. Declarer can always prevail, however, by leading the first club from the dummy and allowing East to win the trick if he splits his honors.