Contract Bridge

This deal occurred in the 1971 world team championship and was played at six tables. At three of the tables, the final contract was four hearts, played by South. Each West led a diamond, and each East won with the ace and returned a club.

The similarity continued when each West cashed the Q-A of clubs and shifted to a low spade. All three declarers then rejected the spade finesse, playing the ace from dummy. But from that point on, the play varied.

At one table, in the match between France and the United States, the French declarer played the jack of clubs from dummy at trick five, hoping in that way to resolve the problem of how to play the trump suit.

But East, Bobby Goldman, didn’t swallow the bait. He did not ruff the jack of clubs with his apparently useless trump, nor did he ruff when the nine was led next. Declarer, having discarded his Q-7 of spades, decided that East must be protecting the Q-x-x-(x) of trump and so played the ace and another trump. Down one.

At the second table, in the match between Australia and Brazil, declarer also led dummy’s jack of clubs at trick five. But here East ruffed with his one and only trump. Declarer overruffed and easily made the contract when he continued with the king of hearts and then took the marked trump finesse against West after East showed out.

At the third table, declarer did not play the jack of clubs at trick five, but instead cashed the A-K of trump. This established West’s queen as the setting trick, and declarer finished down one.