Contract Bridge

Game contracts in minor suits are relatively rare. Whenever a partnership has the high-card strength to undertake an 11-trick contract in a minor, they usually can more easily make nine tricks in notrump or 10 tricks in a major suit.

Here is a typical example.

Although North-South together have 11 clubs, which strongly suggests that suit as trump, by far the best final contract is three notrump played by North. Nothing can stop the nine-trick game, while an 11-trick club contract is clearly not a sure thing.

Three notrump can quickly be reached if South, trying to avoid the club game, bids three diamonds over three clubs. With a stopper in both majors, North could then bid three notrump.

In five clubs, careful play produces 11 tricks. The spade queen is covered by the king and ace, and East’s spade return is ruffed. After drawing a round of trumps, South must now determine the best line of play.

He observes that if either a heart finesse or a diamond finesse succeeds, the contract is made. The odds that one or both finesses will win are 3-1 in his favor. (In the actual case, though, both finesses would fail.)

However, it would be wrong to take both finesses despite the favorable odds. South can improve on his chances by rejecting the diamond finesse. Instead, he should play the A-K-J of diamonds after drawing trumps. As it happens, West’s queen falls, and South’s worries are over.

But let’s suppose the queen had not fallen. In that case, one of two things will happen when the jack is next led. If East wins, he will be forced to return a heart into dummy’s A-Q or yield a fatal ruff-and-discard. If West wins the third diamond -- which means the finesse would have failed if attempted -- declarer still has the heart finesse to fall back on.

Refusing the diamond finesse,

therefore, offers an extra chance to make the contract -- i.e., if West has the doubleton queen -- but can never cause declarer to lose it.

Tomorrow: Trump manipulation.