Contract Bridge

A great deal of what is called good card play is based on making assumptions about how the unseen cards are divided. These assumptions are often wrong, but that doesn’t mean it was wrong to make them; on the contrary, it would be impossible to play good bridge without making some assumptions that prove false.

For example, let’s say you’re West in today’s deal and lead the queen of diamonds against four spades. Declarer wins with dummy’s king and returns a low spade to his king, which you take with the ace.

You are now at the critical

point of the play. If you shift to the king and another club, partner wins and gives you a ruff, and the contract goes down one. But if you play anything else, declarer makes the hand.

Now how can you be

expected to know at trick three that the king of clubs is the killing play? The answer is that you don’t know -- but you should make the play anyway!

It is based on the principle that your primary goal as a defender is to defeat the contract. You know from what you can see in your own hand and dummy that declarer must have either the ace of hearts or ace of clubs in addition to the king of spades and ace of diamonds he has already shown up with.

He may, in fact, have both of the missing aces, but you must dismiss that possibility because it would mean that the contract cannot be defeated. Instead, you should credit partner with one of them, and, going one step further, that one should be the ace of clubs. This is because if he has that card, you can beat the contract, while if he doesn’t, you almost surely can’t.

It is true that hoping your partner has a particular card frequently turns out to be only wishful thinking, but it is nonetheless the right way to play the game.

Tomorrow: The perfect recipe.