BRIDGE

West gets an unwanted assist

A declarer may be forced to improvise when he is faced with a threatening situation. Certainly, an unusual play is not barred merely because it’s unusual.

Take this case where Eddie Kantar, well-known California star, was declarer in five diamonds doubled, and West led his singleton heart. Kantar won with dummy’s king and led a low trump to his king. West elected to duck the king, planning to win the next trump lead. Whatever the merits of West’s play, it failed miserably in the actual deal.

Fully aware of what was going on, Kantar now shifted gears in an effort to avoid the impending heart ruff. He cashed the ace of clubs at trick three, finessed the jack successfully, then cashed the king of clubs as East signaled with the nine of spades.

Now came the pièce de rèsistance. At trick six, Kantar led dummy’s eight of clubs and on it discarded his queen of spades! West won the club with the queen and led a spade to East’s king, but Kantar ruffed, conceded a trump to West’s ace and eventually wound up making five diamonds doubled.

Although Kantar lost a club trick he didn’t have to lose, his thoughtful exchange of a club loser for a spade loser enabled him to avert a heart ruff and so make the contract.

Of course, if West’s imagination had not run wild at trick two, five diamonds would have gone down very quickly, and this article would not have been written. All West had to do was to take the king of diamonds with the ace, shift to a spade and ruff East’s heart return. Very simple and straightforward. But neither life nor bridge is very predictable, and we can all feel grateful to West for having provided us with the ingredients for a very good story.