Contract Bridge

Careful management of the trump suit is vital in the play of many contracts. This hand required delicate handling by declarer to bring home his slam.

West led a spade, taken by dummy’s ace. Declarer then played a club to the queen, on which West showed out. South realized from the bidding that he would be unable to ruff his diamonds successfully in dummy, so he led a heart and finessed the queen, hoping to establish that suit in order to dispose of his diamond losers.

The finesse lost to the king, and East returned the ten of diamonds. South took the ace and, proceeding according to plan, led a heart to the ace and ruffed a heart. If he had ruffed a diamond first, or taken a second club finesse after crossing to the ace of hearts, he would have been defeated.

When the hearts turned out to be divided 3-3, South ruffed a diamond in dummy. At this point, dummy had two good hearts, two trumps and the J-3 of spades, while East had the K-9 of clubs and four spades.

South still had to take a club finesse to pick up East’s K-9 but couldn’t afford to lead one of dummy’s trumps to do so. Instead, he led one of dummy’s hearts, which amounted to taking a trump finesse if East chose to ruff.

East was now faced with a Hobson’s choice. If he ruffed the heart, declarer would overruff, cash the club ace, felling East’s king, then ruff a diamond and discard his other diamond on the last heart.

If East didn’t ruff the heart, South would discard a diamond and lead another heart. Whether East ruffed at this point would again make no difference. East’s king of clubs was bound to be trapped either on this trick or the next one.

South thus made the slam as a result of his thoughtful play. By establishing dummy’s hearts, he was able to finesse in trumps without actually leading them.