Contract Bridge

Let’s say South reaches six spades on the bidding shown and West leads a heart. South counts his losers and sees that he might lose a diamond and a club. The diamond loser is certain, so the problem is to escape a club loser. Superficially, this seems impossible without attempting a finesse in the suit, but actually the slam can be made without relying on the club finesse.

It’s all a matter of guessing which defender has the ace of diamonds. Thus, let’s say declarer decides to play East for the ace. In that case, he wins the heart lead with the ace, crosses to dummy’s ten of spades and returns a low diamond.

If East goes up with the ace, South’s worries are over. Whatever East returns, South draws trump and eventually discards two clubs on the king of hearts and queen of diamonds.

The outcome is the same if East ducks the diamond lead from dummy. In that case, South wins with the king and later discards his other diamond on dummy’s third heart. His only loser is a club.

Now, let’s suppose declarer decides West has the ace of diamonds. In that case, he wins the heart lead with the ace and returns the two of diamonds. Whatever West plays, South makes the slam in the manner previously described.

The real difficulty is to decide where the ace of diamonds is located. This is a major hurdle, no doubt, but it’s not altogether guesswork. South should decide that there is a slightly greater chance that East has the ace.

This conclusion can be drawn from West’s choice of opening lead. Although there is theoretically an even chance that West was dealt the ace of diamonds, that chance is somewhat reduced by his failure to lead it against a slam that was bid in a highly unscientific manner. The reason might well be that he did not have the ace to lead.