Bridge

Opening lead — queen of hearts.

A declarer is obliged, both for himself and his long-suffering partner, to seek a line of play that might succeed rather than adopt a course that will surely fail. This means declarer must stop and think at the outset rather than proceed impulsively. That is, after all, what the game is all about.

Take this case where West led a heart against South’s four-spade contract. Declarer won with the ace and followed the line of least resistance by cashing the ace of diamonds and then leading a spade toward dummy. He was hoping that whoever had the ace would not take this trick, in which case he could next discard his heart loser on dummy’s king of diamonds. After that, the most he could lose would be two club tricks.

This, of course, was nothing more than wishful thinking, and West would have no part in it. When the spade was led, West rose with the ace, cashed the jack of hearts and played a third heart, ruffed by declarer. South still had to lose two club tricks, and so went down one.

Declarer had the right idea about trying to get to dummy to discard a heart, but he chose the wrong approach. Had he tried leading a low club toward dummy at trick three rather than a low spade, he would have gotten home safely. This may look like the same play, but there is a huge difference. If West has the ace of clubs — basically a 50% proposition — he finds himself in a hopeless position.

What can West do? If he plays low, declarer wins with dummy’s queen, discards his heart loser and eventually loses two club tricks and the trump ace. And if West rises with the club ace and takes his heart trick, South winds up losing only one club instead of two.

The recommended play offers declarer essentially a 50-50 chance to make the contract. In anybody’s book, that’s a lot better than no chance at all.