AFTER TECHNIQUE COMES FLEXIBILITY

Gian Vincenzo Gravina, a jurist and writer who died in 1718, claimed that “a bore is a man who deprives you of solitude without providing you with company.”

If all bridge deals featured textbook plays, we would become bored quickly. However, there are many contracts that require an abnormal approach. For example, in today’s deal, West leads the heart king against South’s contract of three no-trump. What should declarer do?

North’s negative double showed exactly four spades.

South has eight top tricks: four spades, one heart, two diamonds and one club. He can get his ninth winner from the club suit, except that he will be taking the finesse into West, the defender with all of the hearts to cash. As the finesse is surely losing, given West’s overcall, South should engineer an endplay.

He wins the second round of hearts, noting that East followed both times. Then South cashes his spade and diamond winners. This brings West down to five cards. Probably, he will discard one club and three diamonds, retaining three hearts and two clubs. If so, declarer leads a heart. West takes his three heart tricks but is then forced to lead away from the club king at trick 12.

That might seem straightforward, but a clever West will force South to guess. He will discard two clubs and two diamonds, preferably in that order. Then declarer must cash the club ace to drop West’s now-singleton king. If he gets it right, he will have a story with which to bore everyone for a week. If he gets it wrong, West will bore everyone.