The ChoiceWas Restricted Unusually

Rita Dove, a poet and essayist, wrote, “Without imagination we can go nowhere. And imagination is not restricted to the arts. Every scientist I have met who has been a success has had to imagine.”

Every successful bridge player has to picture in his mind’s eye where the missing key cards are situated -- science. But sometimes a player has to play contrary to the textbook -- art.

Which is it in today’s deal? South is in four hearts. West leads the club queen. East wins with his ace and promptly shifts to the diamond six. How should declarer continue?

The declarer was Steve Conrad of Manhasset, Long Island. He was sure that East’s diamond was a singleton. So, perforce, he won trick two with his ace. But now he seemed to have four unavoidable losers: one in each suit. His only chance was to draw trumps without losing a trick.

South led a low heart to dummy’s king, collectingWest’s jack. What next?

Yesterday, declarer successfully followed the Principle of Restricted Choice. If West had had the queen-jack-doubleton, he might have played the queen instead of the jack. But if he had only the jack, he had no choice. Assume he had a singleton.

Here, though, Conrad realized that if East had started with four trumps, the contract was unmakeable. Yes, he could draw

WIN BRIDGE

AT

trumps, but when he drove out the spade ace or diamond king, the defenders would dislodge the club king, then cash clubs when in with their other winner.

Conrad played a heart back to his ace and claimed when the queen dropped. Artistic!