Contract Bridge

GIVE A LITTLE, GAIN A LOT

Point count is usually a helpful guide to the number of tricks you can take, but it is not a perfect yardstick. Freak distribution can seriously affect the accuracy of high-card point count, particularly in the case of suit contracts.

Consider this deal where South got to five clubs doubled. West had 17 points and probably thought he’d tear that contract to pieces, especially with East having bid twice. But things didn’t quite turn out the way he had expected.

West led a spade. Declarer won with the ace, played the king and another heart, finessing the jack, and discarded his singleton diamond on the ace of hearts.

These four plays established a perfect crossruff position, and South proceeded to take full advantage. He ruffed a diamond, a spade, a diamond, a spade and then a third diamond and a third spade.

Ten tricks had now been played, and declarer had taken them all. West was down to the A-K-10 of trump, and South the Q-J-9. When declarer next led a club to his queen, West could score only two trump tricks, so South wound up making five clubs doubled despite East-West’s 24 high-card points!

Observe that the outcome would have been altogether different had West elected to start off with the A-K10 of clubs. In that event, South would have gone down two.

It should be said parenthetically that there are very good reasons for West to begin by leading three rounds of trump. North-South were obviously bidding on distribution rather than high cards, so West should have taken steps to short-circuit any impending crossruff. Although this was likely to cost West a trump trick, it was highly probable that the trick would come back with interest.