Bridge

Opening lead – two of clubs.

It’s hard to estimate how many contracts are lost because players get overly upset after running into a bad suit break. A significant part of the skill in bridge consists of keeping your cool when the unexpected strikes, and then calmly doing the best you can under the circumstances.

Take the present case where South discovered early in the play that all five missing trumps were banked against him.

When dummy first appeared, it seemed his only possible losers were a spade, a heart and a diamond. But when declarer ruffed the club lead and played the ace of trumps, East did not follow suit, and it now seemed South would have to lose two trump tricks.

But faint heart ne’er won fair lady, and South did not promptly abandon all hope. Instead, he focused all his efforts on finding a solution to his predicament. He knew that his chances of winning a diamond finesse were very poor on the bidding, so he decided to try to eliminate one of his trump losers.

Accordingly, at trick three he led a heart to dummy’s jack. East won with the ace and returned a heart to the queen. Declarer then ruffed a club, played a heart to the king and ruffed another club. Next came a diamond to the ace, deliberately rejecting the finesse, followed by another diamond to East’s king.

At this point, South was down to only the K-J-10-8 of spades, while West’s last four cards were the Q-9-7-6. When East now led a club, declarer trumped with the 10. West realised he’d be finished if he overruffed, so he chose instead to underruff with the six.

South countered by next leading the eight of spades. West won with the nine, but then had to lead from the Q-7 into declarer’s K-J, and the contract was home