Moving one card diverts the defense

One of the many reasons bridge has lived so long is that a small change to a deal can have a large impact on the play or defense.

In today’s deal, South is in three hearts. How can the defenders come out on top? What would they have to do if West received a fourth heart from East and gave him a club in return?

It is not normally recommended to rebid a five-card suit, but those

spades certainly look like a sixbagger. The rest of the auction was predictable.

After West leads the spade ace, East drops the nine, starting a highlow (echo) with a doubleton. West can now see four defensive winners: three spades and one heart. But where is the fifth trick?

Surely East cannot have a club honor. West’s only real hope for success is his singleton diamond. At trick two (or three), he shifts to the diamond nine.

Declarer wins in hand with the queen and leads a low heart. West dashes in with his ace, cashes the spade king (if it is trick four, not five) and continues with the spade two (or jack). East should see what is needed. He will ruff the trick (assuming he started with two trumps!) and return a diamond, allowing West to ruff and defeat the contract.

If West has four hearts, he knows that East has only one trump. East won’t have an entry to give West a diamond ruff. In this case, West’s best chance is to lead four rounds of spades. With luck, East will have the heart seven or 10. If South discards from the dummy, East will ruff with that critical trump, effecting an uppercut. West will get two heart tricks.