Contract Bridge

History does not record the declarer of this hand played many years ago, so South, unfortunately, will have to be remembered only by the name of Author Anonymous.

East-West were playing weak jump-overcalls, and East’s two-spade bid was designed only to harass his vulnerable opponents. West’s three-heart bid was more of the same. However, the East-West tactics were successful because they jockeyed North-South into a poor three-notrump contract.

West led a spade, and South won East’s nine with the jack. Declarer could see only eight tricks with little hope of developing a ninth. He knew that if he attempted to give up a club trick early in the play in order to establish the suit, the defense would then run five or six heart tricks. South considered the matter carefully and, in due course, came up with an ingenious scheme to steal the contract. At trick two, he led the three of hearts!

This apparently suicidal play worked out just as declarer had hoped. West did not go up with the ace of hearts, which would have settled South’s hash immediately, but made the normal play of the queen. East, forced to win with the king, returned a diamond.

Declarer won in his hand, led the nine of clubs and ducked it to East’s queen. The party was now over. East returned another diamond, and declarer finished with 10 tricks consisting of two spades, four diamonds and four clubs.

South had realized that West’s heart holding could not very well include the A-K-Q, or he would have led the suit originally. Since West had introduced his hearts at the three level, South placed him with a six-card suit and East with a singleton honor. And if the honor was the ace or king, the low heart lead was almost sure to succeed.

West could have saved the day, of course, but how many players do you know who would have gone up with the ace of hearts?