Contract Bridge

It is human to err, but some bridge players appear to be more human than others! Consider this deal where it is very easy for declarer to make a mistake. West leads a heart against three notrump, declarer playing the ten from dummy and taking East’s queen with the ace.

South then leads a spade to dummy’s queen, losing the finesse to East’s king and back comes a heart to dummy’s jack. Declarer next cashes the ace of spades, on which West shows out.

South is now in serious trouble. He plays the queen of clubs from dummy, but West refuses to win the trick, putting an end to South’s fleeting hopes. Declarer must now go down at least one, regardless of how he plays.

Yet the fact is that South cannot be prevented from making nine tricks if he plays the hand correctly. It is true that he is very unlucky both to lose the spade finesse and to find the spades divided 4-1. But it is also true that South can guarantee the contract without subjecting himself in any way to the element of luck.

All he has to do is to play the king of hearts from dummy at trick one and then lead the queen of clubs. If the queen holds, South continues with the nine to the ten and persists with the suit until the ace is forced out. This method of play is sure to produce nine tricks in the form of four clubs, two diamonds, two hearts and a spade.

To assure the contract, declarer must resist the temptation to score three heart tricks by playing the ten from dummy at trick one. Instead, he sacrifices the extra heart trick to make certain that he scores the four club tricks he needs to get home safely.