Bridge

Guaranteeing the contract

Opening lead — king of spades.

Declarer does not have the advantage of seeing the defenders’ cards when he is playing a hand, but he is nevertheless expected to do as well in the majority of deals as if he had actually seen the opposing hands.

In most situations, declarer does not have much trouble meeting this goal. Many hands play themselves, so to speak, and declarer attains par without much bother. But other hands do require a modicum of skill, and it is these that pose a challenge to the serious student of the game.

To demonstrate, take this case where South finds himself in five hearts and gets a chance to display his wares. After a spade lead, how should declarer play the hand?

If we examine the East-West cards, it seems South is destined to go down regardless of what he does. He takes two club finesses, both of which lose, and, since a diamond loser is inescapable, he finishes down one.

This result can be attributed to bad luck, of course, but actually, South should not rely on the hope that one of the club finesses will win. He should adopt the line of play that guarantees the contract regardless of how the defenders’ cards are divided.

The issue can be settled at trick one. On the king-of-spades lead, South plays low from dummy and discards a diamond from his hand! West’s next play does not matter. Let’s assume he leads another spade.

Declarer discards another diamond on the ace, cashes the ace of diamonds and ruffs a diamond. He then crosses to dummy with a trump and ruffs dummy’s last diamond.

The stage is now set for a surefire endplay. Dummy is entered with a trump, and a club is led and finessed. West wins, but whatever he returns gives declarer the contract.