Contract Bridge

There is usually a right way and a wrong way to do things. The trick in bridge is to recognize the difference between right and wrong, and to proceed accordingly.

Take this case where South reached six spades on the bidding shown and West led the eight of clubs. Declarer took the club with the king and continued with the ace, discarding a heart from dummy. He then played the A-K of hearts, ruffed a heart in dummy, ruffed a diamond and then attempted to ruff a club.

But when West ruffed with the six of spades and returned the nine, South was in bad shape. He could not ruff his last club because West would score the eight of trumps, so he went down one.

Declarer should have made the slam, however. It was a mistake to cash the ace of clubs at trick two. Instead, he should have ruffed a low club in dummy immediately.

South next leads a heart to his ace and returns the six of clubs. West probably ruffs, and dummy discards a heart. West then returns a trump, but he is now fighting a losing battle. Declarer wins the trump, cashes the king of hearts and ruffs the heart seven with dummy’s last trump. South scores the rest of the tricks with his five remaining trumps and the ace of clubs.

The key play is to ruff a club in dummy immediately instead of first cashing the second high club. It might not seem important to do this, but the fact is that the contract stands or falls on this one decision.

Tomorrow: Faith, hope and charity.