Contract Bridge

Most deals require no more than simple, orderly thinking for declarer to achieve the best result possible. A tendency to focus on how to play a specific suit rather than on how to play the hand as a whole is a fairly common failing that causes many contracts to be lost.

Take this case where many declarers would go wrong. West leads a spade, and South wins East’s nine with the queen. How should declarer play the hand? He is gazing at six ready- made tricks — two spades, two hearts and two clubs — and needs three more for the contract.

Declarer can lead a diamond to the queen and lose to the ace — which East, on the bidding, is likely to have — but this will give South only two additional tricks and leave him one trick shy of his goal. Or declarer can play the A- K and another club, hoping the opposing clubs are divided 3-2, but this will also bring him to only eight tricks.

Since both methods of play lead to a dead end, South should start looking elsewhere for a way to develop his three additional tricks. And if he studies the situation carefully enough, he should spot an approach that will give him an excellent shot at the contract.

At trick two, he leads a club to the king and returns a low diamond from dummy. East can’t afford to rise with the ace, which would hand declarer three immediate diamond tricks, so let’s say East ducks and allows South to win with the king.

Having “stolen” this trick, declarer now abandons diamonds and plays the ace and another club. When the suit breaks normally, he has nine solid tricks.

A little in- depth analysis at the start pays off in the end.