BRIDGE MASTERCLASS

NORTH leads the ♣10 against your contract of 6NT. What is your safety play to guarantee your contract? SADLY, the average duplicate player is not trained to study safety plays and rarely uses them because they invariably mean getting poor scores in Pairs events.

The safety play is a line of play that gains when the opponents’ cards are distributed badly.

In the above example, there are 13 easy tricks if either red suit breaks. However, if neither suit breaks, you have real problems, because there are no communications between the hands.

The safe line is to give up a diamond trick after winning the opening lead and cashing the ♥K. Such caution will be rewarded when either opponent holds ♠xx ♥Jxxx ♦Jxxx ♣xxx.