Contract Bridge

Most players are taught early in life that they must never knowingly give declarer a ruff- and- discard. But, as with all general rules, there are times when this injunction should be scrapped.

Assume you’re East and your partner leads the queen of spades against South’s four- heart contract. You overtake the queen with the king — just in case the queen is a singleton — and continue with the A-J. West discards a diamond on the third round of spades, and the question is what to do next.

Ordinarily, you’d discontinue the suit, bearing in mind the ancient ruff- and- discard bugaboo. In the present case, however, you should play a fourth round of spades!

There are basically two reasons for doing this. The first is that a heart, a diamond and a club return are all give- up plays that can’t help your cause at all. The second is that you might manufacture a trump trick for your partner that does not exist naturally, and in that way defeat the contract.

In the actual case, once you lead the fourth round of spades, declarer is in a hopeless position. If he discards either a diamond or a club, or ruffs low, your partner ruffs with the nine to promote a trump trick for himself. South is in equally bad shape if he ruffs the fourth spade with the ten or king. In either case, West discards a club to assure a trump trick later on.

Note that if you fail to play a spade at trick four, South can bring the contract home by finessing against your partner’s queen of trump. Note also that playing a fourth round of spades would be equally successful if West’s trump holding were the K- 9-x.