Contract Bridge

This deal occurred about 60 years ago in the European Championships in a match between Ireland and Poland.

The bidding shown took place when the Irish held the North-South cards. The auction was pressured by West’s preemptive overcall, but the final contract was a reasonable one.

The Polish West led the nine of clubs, and the declarer, Barry O’Connell, made the first of several key plays by putting up dummy’s king. A spade was then led to the jack, which held. After cashing the A-K of spades, O’Connell exited with a heart.

Unwilling to yield a ruffand-discard, West shifted to the jack of diamonds, which rode to South’s queen. West’s choice of a club lead and his failure to continue the suit convinced O’Connell that the original lead was a singleton. This meant East still held the Q-10-8 of clubs, which constituted two natural tricks unless O’Connell could find a way to make one of them disappear.

After taking the jack of diamonds with the queen, he led a diamond to the ten, taken by East with the ace. Avoiding the club suit like the plague, East returned the diamond nine to dummy’s king. South then cashed the eight of diamonds and led a low club from dummy. When East produced the eight, O’Connell let him hold the trick!

This left East in a hopeless position. A heart return would allow declarer to dispose of his remaining club loser as he ruffed in dummy, while a club lead from the Q-10 would let dummy score the jack. Either way, the contract was home.

At the other table, the Polish North-South pair also reached four spades, and the Irish West also led his singleton club. But here, declarer neglected to play the king from dummy at trick one, and the contract failed.