DAILY BRIDGE CLUB

Crafty declarers have been known to attack a weak suit in order to conceal the true location of their strength.

In a classic episode, a declarer at 3NT had 4-3-2 of clubs in dummy opposite his doubleton Q-J. He won the opening lead in a different suit in dummy and led a club to his jack. It held. So he went back to dummy and led a club to his queen. It held also, and he then had nine tricks.

“Partner,” declarer commented, “if only I’d held the 10, I could have brought in the whole suit.”

In today’s deal, West led a low spade against 3NT, and South won and counted seven tricks. A winning finesse in a minor suit would have given him two more, but since a losing finesse might be fatal, South tried for a combination shot: He took the ace of diamonds and then tried the A-K of clubs. When the queen didn’t fall, South let the 10 of diamonds ride. Alas, West took the queen and ran the spades for down one.

South gave himself an extra chance, but he might have done better by returning a spade at Trick Two. It looks odd for South to lead a suit in which West has several winners, but South knows from West’s lead of the four that he had no more than five spades. By letting West take his tricks, South forces East to discard.

On the third and fourth spade, South discards two diamonds from dummy and two clubs from his hand. East can let go one heart, maybe two, but at some point he is almost sure to discard at least one diamond. South will be a favorite to pick up the diamond suit and make his game.