See the bad lie, see the solution

Jerry Gillies, an author in the area of finance, said, “Make sure you visualize what you really want, not what someone else wants for you.”

A bridge declarer wants to make his contract; the defenders wish to defeat him. This week, being successful as declarer has required visualizing both the nasty distribution and how to survive it. Here is one more example.

How should South have played in four spades? West led the diamond ace: three, nine (encouraging), two. West continued with the diamond king and another diamond.

North’s sequence showed game-going values with exactly five spades. Here, three no-trump would have been easy, but South removed to the 5-3 fit. He was worried that a club lead might have been fatal to three no-trump.

Four spades looked like a walk in the park too, with … apparently … five spades, four hearts and one club readily available. Declarer ruffed the third diamond and played a spade to his ace. East’s club discard was a mortal blow that South had not visualized. The contract could no longer be made.

Just in case the spades were 5-0, or East had begun with a doubleton diamond and could overruff a low spade, declarer should have discarded a club or heart from the board at trick three. Yes, East would have taken the trick with his queen, but he would have had no winning continuation. Probably he would have shifted to a club, but South would have won with his ace, drawn trumps and claimed those 10 winners.

Try to visualize nasty distribution and how to circumnavigate it.