Contract Bridge

Let’s say you’re West, defending against six notrump. You lead a heart, and when dummy comes down, there are several conclusions you can reach about the unseen hands.

Assuming that South plays

15- to 17-point notrumps, you can tell right away that your partner has a hand you wouldn’t wish on your worst enemy. Your seven points, added to dummy’s 18 and South’s 15, tell you that East is pointless, since there are only

40 points in the deck.

Translating declarer’s

points into tricks, you can count 11 of them -- three spades, four hearts, two diamonds and two clubs. You are also painfully aware that South can acquire his slam-going trick simply by finessing dummy’s jack of clubs.

Your only real chance to stop the slam is to try to talk South out of taking the club finesse by diverting his attention elsewhere. Accordingly, when he wins the first heart in dummy and leads a diamond to the queen, you play the three. When he next re-enters dummy with a spade and plays a diamond to the king, you follow low again!

South is now almost certain

to return to dummy and lead a third round of diamonds, since he is sure to think that East has the ace. He is not likely to risk a club finesse at this stage, since losing the finesse would mean losing the slam. When he does lead the third diamond from dummy, you score the A-10, and the slam goes down one.

Observe what happens if you win the first or second diamond lead. Declarer later discovers that the diamonds are divided 4-2 and has no alternative but to hope that you have the queen of clubs. When you turn up with it, the slam comes rolling home.

Tomorrow: A matter of self-preservation.