Contract Bridge

THINKING THINGS THROUGH

Whenever you enter the bidding, there is always a hidden risk. If your side fails to buy the contract, the information provided by the bids you have made may be used against you by the declarer. This, of course, should not be construed as advice against bidding; it merely states a fact of life that every bridge player must learn to accept.

Take this case where East’s opening bid guided declarer to a successful line of play that he surely would not have found had East remained silent. After East had taken the K-A of spades and shifted to a club, South could see two more potential losers, one in diamonds and one in hearts.

Ordinarily, he would have tried to avoid the heart loser by attempting a finesse against West. But since East had to have the heart king for his opening bid — only 14 points were missing from the North-South hands — the finesse was sure to lose.

Declarer therefore chose a method of play that was not guaranteed to work, but at least offered some chance of success. He won the king of clubs at trick three, then cashed the ace of trumps and A-Q of clubs. Next came the A-K of diamonds, after which he exited with a trump.

The situation South was hoping for now materialized. East won the heart but had to return a spade or a club, allowing declarer to discard his diamond loser as he ruffed in dummy. As a result, South made his game, losing only two spades and a heart.

It is true that in order for this play to succeed, East had to have started with just two hearts and no more than two diamonds. But the welcome assist from Lady Luck would not have been possible had declarer failed to take advantage of what he had learned from the bidding.