Contract Bridge

It would surely be easier to defend perfectly if you could see the declarer’s cards. But lacking this advantage, you should do the next best thing, which is to try to formulate a picture of declarer’s hand, using information gathered from either the bidding or the plays already made.

That this practice pays well is illustrated by the accompanying deal where West led the K- A- Q of diamonds, declarer ruffing the third one. South was now faced with the problem of avoiding two spade losers. He started by cashing the king of trump and A- K of clubs before leading a second trump to the ace. Then he led a low spade from dummy.

South’s method of play would have worked out perfectly had East followed low on the spade. Declarer would have played the nine, and West would have been endplayed after winning with the king. Any return by him would have handed South the contract.

But East had watched declarer’s sequence of plays very closely, and he foiled South’s scheme by going up with the queen when the spade was led from dummy. This left declarer with two spade losers no matter how he proceeded.

How did East know that the queen was the right play? The answer is simple enough if one stops to examine the evidence at the point when the spade was led from dummy.

East learns early in the play that South started with precisely six hearts, two diamonds and two clubs. It follows, therefore, that declarer must have three spades, neither more nor less. Furthermore, South has no more entries to dummy, so this is the one and only time he will be able to lead a spade toward his hand. Given this scenario, East goes up with the queen to thwart a potential endplay against his partner.