Contract Bridge

Some deals have a lot more to offer than at first meets the eye. Take this innocent-looking specimen from a national pairs contest.

At first blush, it might appear that making four hearts depends strictly on whether East or West has the ace of spades. Since West holds that card, it would seem that four hearts is doomed. But it was nowhere near as simple as that. At one table, the play proceeded in the most straightforward manner. South won the queen-of-diamonds lead with the ace, drew trumps ending in dummy and led a spade to the king. West took the ace, and South eventually went down one.

At the next table, South ducked the queen of diamonds at trick one and won West’s diamond continuation with the ace. Declarer then drew trumps, ruffed a diamond in his hand and cashed the K-A of clubs. After this start, West had to be on his toes when the second club was cashed. Had he retained the queen, he would have been thrown on lead with it on the next trick and forced to lead from the ace of spades or yield a ruff-anddiscard. But West alertly deposited the queen under the king, allowing East to win the third club and return a spade to do South in. At a third table, declarer improved significantly on the previous line of play by ducking the first diamond, winning the second and then cashing the K-A of clubs before either ruffing a diamond or drawing trumps. Here, West knew much less about the hand when the clubs were played, and when he failed to get rid of the queen under the king or ace, he was put on lead with it after trumps were drawn and a diamond was ruffed. Plus 620 for North-South.

At still another table, the defense gave declarer no chance. South ducked the first diamond as before, but East alertly overtook the queen with the king and returned the queen of spades, making short work of any hopes declarer had for the contract.

Tomorrow: Hook, line and sinker.