Contract Bridge

Some deals contain built-in traps that may lure declarer to an unnecessary defeat. For this reason, declarer should carefully examine all his assets before committing himself to a particular line of play.

Take this case where South got to four hearts and West led the queen of clubs. Declarer won with the ace, cashed the ace of diamonds, drew two rounds of trump ending in his hand, then led the ten of diamonds and let it ride. East won with the queen, cashed the king of clubs and shifted to a spade, and West’s A-Q of spades put the contract down one.

South bemoaned his bad luck in finding the queen of diamonds and both missing spade honors offside. With proper play, however, the contract was a virtual certainty from the outset.

The fault lay in South’s becoming overly enamored of dummy’s diamond suit and the potential spade discard it afforded. Had he instead looked at the hand a whole, he would have realized that his spade holding was actually an asset rather than a liability.

The correct approach is to draw trump ending in dummy and lead a spade toward the K-10. After East follows low, South can either finesse the ten or play the king, depending on where he thinks the ace is located.

As it happens, both spade honors are offside, so declarer cannot avoid losing two spade tricks. Nevertheless, the contract is assured.

For example, suppose West wins the ten of spades with the queen, cashed the queen of clubs and shifts to a diamond. Declarer puts up the ace and plays a second spade to the king and ace, establishing dummy’s jack. Whatever West returns, South cannot be stopped from discarding a diamond on the jack of spades, and he winds up losing only two spades and a club.