Contract Bridge

Assume you’re in six spades and West leads the ten of diamonds. You play the jack from dummy and ruff East’s queen, but what do you do next? There is no good reason not to draw trump, but when you cash your Q-J, East shows out on the second round.

It would be wrong to pull West’s last trump at this point, because the outcome would then rest entirely on a 3-2 club division. Instead, you should try to think of a way to cater to a possible 4-1 club division, which is the only real threat to the slam.

You should conclude that if West has four clubs, the slam is hopeless, so you proceed on the assumption that East has the club length. Accordingly, you cash the ace of clubs and lead another club toward the king. West shows out and may or may not ruff, but whatever he does, you make the slam.

If he ruffs, you play low from dummy and later ruff a club in dummy; if he discards, you win with the king and lead another club. East wins, but you can’t be stopped from ruffing a club with dummy’s king to establish your fifth club as a trick.

Observe that each step in this sequence of plays is dictated by straightforward logic. You start out hoping for a 2-2 trump division, but then adjust to the 3-1 division when it develops.

The next step is to assume a 4-1 club split. You then assign the four clubs to East, because that is the only way you can still make the contract if the clubs are 4-1.

Finally, you cater to West’s presumed singleton club by first cashing the ace and then leading toward the king, rather than by cashing the king and leading to the ace, which would be fatal.