Contract Bridge

There are times when declarer cannot afford to develop all his potential tricks, the usual reason being that by the time the winners are established, the defenders will already have collected enough tricks to defeat him. In these cases, declarer may have to search for a quicker way to gain the additional trick (or tricks) he needs.

For example, take this deal where declarer starts with six top tricks — three spades, two diamonds and a club — and so needs three more to make three notrump. He wins the opening diamond lead with the king and tries the club finesse, hoping West has the king.

But East takes the club ten with the king and returns a diamond to the ace. South wins and, with only eight tricks in view, must try to find another one.

If South had all the time he needed, he could drive out the A-K of hearts and score his ninth trick in that suit. But that obviously won’t work on this occasion, since the opponents will collect two diamond tricks to add to the A-K of hearts and club king for down one.

There is only one genuine chance for nine tricks, and that lies in the hope that West was dealt the jack of spades. If so, dummy’s ten can be converted into a trick by taking a finesse against the jack.

So at trick four, declarer leads the spade four and, when West follows low, plays dummy’s ten. After it wins, South cashes three more spades and three clubs to make the contract.

It is true that the unusual first-round spade finesse might lose to East, in which case South would go down an extra trick.

But considering that declarer is investing only 50 points while trying to gain 400 (roughly the value of a nonvulnerable game at rubber bridge), this miniscule loss is clearly worth the risk.