Contract Bridge

One of the first things a beginner discovers is that a surprising number of tricks are won by low cards. This happens most often when the small cards are trump, but it is also very common for tricks to be taken by low cards because no one else has any more cards in that suit.

In the latter case, careful handling is often required when attempting to establish low cards as tricks. Take this case where declarer starts out at four hearts with four losers — two spades, a diamond and a club. Stated conversely, he has only nine winners — six hearts and three aces.

The only hope of making the contract lies in developing an extra club trick. But there is a right way and a wrong way to go about the task. Thus, if South simply wins the opening diamond lead and plays the ace and another club, he will find himself fighting a losing battle.

West takes the club, cashes a diamond and shifts to a spade. Declarer wins, crosses to the heart jack and ruffs a club. When the missing clubs fail to divide 3-3, he has no chance. He can lead a heart to the king and ruff another club, but he has no entry to cash dummy’s fifth club.

South should instead adopt a method of play that caters to a 4-2 split as well as a 3-3 break in clubs. This can be accomplished by leading a low club from dummy at trick two.

As before, West wins, cashes a diamond and shifts to a spade. This time, though, South wins, leads a club to the ace and ruffs a club with the ten. The A-K of hearts are next played, followed by a club ruffed with the queen. The jack of hearts then provides the entry to cash the fifth club, and the contract is home.