Contract Bridge

There are plays in bridge that may seem to make no sense to the casual observer, but which upon re-examination prove to be far more sensible than is at first apparent.

Consider this deal from a team-of-four match. At the first table, West led the diamond jack against six spades. South won with the ace and continued with the king, planning to ruff a diamond high in dummy next and thus assure the slam.

South’s plan would certainly have succeeded on the great majority of occasions, but in this case West ruffed the king and returned a trump, and declarer later lost another diamond to go down one.

At the second table, South likewise got to six spades, and again the opening lead was the jack of diamonds. But here declarer made the slam, and there was nothing the defenders could do to stop him.

After taking the jack with the ace, South returned the five of diamonds! This play guaranteed the contract regardless of how the opposing cards were divided, so it is hard to find fault with it. South realized there was no way the defenders could prevent him from ruffing the seven of diamonds with the king of trumps as soon as he regained the lead, and the slam was therefore unbeatable.

The hand demonstrates for the umpteenth time that when declarer feels certain of his contract, he should always ask himself: “Is there anything that can defeat me?”

Had the declarer at the first table asked himself this question, he would have realized that the only thing that could stop the slam was a 6-1 diamond division. He might then have found the same low diamond play at trick two as his counterpart at the other table.

Tomorrow: A 100 percent solution.