THE BRIDGE COLUMN

Some hands have all the tricks that you need to make your contract, but you still have to figure out how to take them. Some are very complicated, like the popular puzzle cube that appeared over 30 years ago and is still seen today. Today’s deal is not especially complicated, but it takes some careful planning.

There appear to be nine easy tricks — four spades, two hearts, and three clubs. Should declarer win the opening heart lead in his hand, however, he will not be able to take those nine tricks against proper defense. Say that he wins the king of hearts and attacks clubs. West will hold up his ace until the third round of the suit and lead a diamond to East’s ace for the heart return that will set up two heart tricks for him. South will not be able to take four spade tricks unless the spades split 3-3. Declarer can cash the ace, queen, and jack of spades before leading clubs, but the defense can still defeat him. South will cash the king of spades while in dummy with the jack of clubs, but West will hold up his ace of clubs until the third round of the suit and proceed as before. South will not have an entry to his hand for the third club trick.

Declarer must win the opening lead with dummy’s ace of hearts. Then he can play off the three top spades in his hand before leading clubs. He can discard a diamond on the king of spades while in dummy with a club and then continue clubs until West takes his ace. He will still have the king of hearts in his hand to reach his third club trick. Making three!