Contract Bridge

Occasionally, declarer finds himself in a paradoxical position where even if he misguesses how to play a key suit, he’s still sure to survive.

This rather unusual situation arose in today’s deal, where South was in three notrump and West led the king of spades after having overcalled in spades. Declarer held up his ace until the third round and then played a club to the king.

South was gratified to see East win this trick, but East’s neutral club return, giving nothing away, left declarer with just eight tricks and the question of how best to try for a ninth.

Two possibilities were obvious: He could cash the A-K-Q of hearts, hoping to fell the jack, and, failing that, he could fall back on a diamond finesse. As the cards lie, neither of these approaches would have been successful.

But South saw another possibility — one that would virtually assure the contract regardless of who had the jack of hearts or the king of diamonds.

Accordingly, after taking East’s club return, he cashed two more clubs, then played the A-K and another heart. After West followed low, South finessed dummy’s ten to score his ninth trick.

A lucky guess? Far from it, as South had a sure thing going for him. Had the heart finesse lost, East would have been forced to return a diamond into dummy’s A-Q, handing declarer the contract. The heart finesse was thus bound to succeed whether it won or lost!

Note also that if West had shown out when the third heart was led, South would still have been in the driver’s seat. In that case, he would have taken the queen and led the ten to force East to make the same fatal diamond return.