Contract Bridge

In this deal from a rubber-bridge game, South got to four spades as shown and West led a trump, taken by South with the ace. East’s low-club discard on the first spade revealed the 5-0 trump division and left declarer with several ways to attempt to get home with 10 tricks.

Declarer decided at once that it would be dangerous to play three more rounds of trump and then try to cash the A-K-Q of both minor suits, because if West ruffed any one of them with his last trump, the contract would automatically be defeated.

South therefore postponed drawing trump and played the K-Q-A of diamonds, discarding a heart from dummy before trying to cash the A-K-Q of clubs. Unfortunately, West ruffed the third club and played the king and another heart to put a quick end to the proceedings.

However, declarer would have succeeded had he adopted what is surely the best method of play. He should have cashed only two top tricks in both minors and then led the queen of diamonds. When West follows suit, South can assure the contract by simply discarding the queen of clubs from dummy!

Declarer next plays the five of clubs and ruffs it with dummy’s jack to finish with 10 tricks consisting of the A-K of clubs, A-K-Q of diamonds and five trump tricks.

Observe that this line of play would have been equally successful had West held two diamonds and two clubs. Only if West had a singleton diamond or a singleton club would the contract have failed, but in that case, all other approaches would have suffered the same fate.

In bridge, there are many hands where something unexpected occurs, such as the 5-0 trump break in this deal. The secret of trying to overcome such misfortunes is to keep your cool while seeking an effective counterstroke. There is quite often an answer if you search hard enough.