RUNNING TO THE BRIDGE TABLE

Michel de Montaigne, who was a 16th-century essayist and philosopher, wrote, “When I am attacked by gloomy thoughts, nothing helps me so much as running to my books.”

For a bridge player, nothing helps so much as turning to a deck of cards. But you need to think clearly to play well. Just pulling the card nearest your thumb will rarely work.

This deal was declared thoughtfully by Ilana Barness from Israel. How did she plan to make four spades after a club lead? What was West’s more effective opening salvo?

That South hand had only four high-card points, but it included two five-card majors and a void. Barness realized that if she could find a good fit with her partner, she would win a lot of tricks.

Declarer knew that when you have a two-suited hand, you should play on the side suit first. So, after discarding a diamond on dummy’s club king, Barness continued with the ace and another heart. East returned a club, declarer pitching a second diamond. Now came the spade king, East dropping the jack. Barness knew that this was more likely to be a singleton than from the doubleton queen-jack. So she abandoned trumps. Instead, she cashed dummy’s diamond ace, ruffed a club, ruffed a heart, ruffed a club and ruffed a heart. There were three cards left, West having only trumps. Declarer led a diamond from the dummy and discarded her winning heart 10. West ruffed but had to lead away from her spade queen-nine into declarer’s ace-10.

The only winning opening lead was the diamond king, but how could West have found that?

By Phillip Alder