THE CHRISTMAS COMPETITION WINNERS

T here were several excellent entries to my Christmas Competition, and the winner by a whisker was Mukesh Ghatiya from Bengaluru, India. Congratulations. The runners-up were Steven Glaser of Holladay, Utah; John Harvey of Mount Hope, Canada (a winner in 2016); Ben Hawn of Lancaster, Pennsylvania (last year's winner); and Stanley Lipnick of Naples, Florida.

Bridge is full of maxims that are not right all of the time. However, there is one play technique that always works -- unless (sorry!) you don't have the entries to carry it out. What is this technique?

Against South's contract of three no-trump, West led the club king, and East encouraged with the nine. How should declarer have planned the play?

North should have overcalled one no-trump, not risked reaching a 4-2 club fit. South upgraded to two no-trump because of his excellent spot-cards.

From the bidding, South knew that West had to hold the heart king and spade ace. Therefore, he ducked the first club trick, but when West continued with the club two to his partner's jack, declarer won with his ace. (He could have ducked again, planning to win immediately with the ace if East switched to a heart.)

Next, South knew to lead toward honor combinations. He played a low spade toward dummy, putting up the queen when West played low.

bridge

Declarer returned to hand with a diamond to the jack for the lead of a second low spade. Here, West had to play the ace on thin air, giving South three spade tricks and nine in all. The defenders took only one spade and three clubs.

Copyright United Feature Syndicate (Asia Features)