Contract Bridge

Many contracts hinge on whether declarer can avoid losing a trump trick when he is missing the Q-x-x-x of the suit. The normal play in such a situation is to cash the A-K and hope the queen falls, rather than to take a finesse if one is available.

Today’s deal is unusual in that even if it turns out that declarer must lose a trump trick to the queen, he is virtually certain to regain the trick elsewhere -regardless of which defender actually has the queen!

After West’s lead of the diamond queen, it would appear that declarer, with normal play, must lose two diamond tricks (to the ace and jack), the ace of clubs and a trump trick. But as all experienced players know, appearances can be deceiving.

East won the first diamond

with the ace and played the ace and another club. From East’s failure to return a diamond at trick two, which would seem logical, declarer inferred that East had started with the singleton ace of diamonds.

It seemed that the outcome

now depended strictly on what happened in the trump suit. But declarer already saw that even if one opponent held the Q-x-x of trumps, the contract was almost certain to come home.

South started by cashing the A-K of spades, learning that East had a trump trick coming. Undaunted, he then cashed the A-K-Q of hearts, discarding a diamond. He then played the king of diamonds, and whether East ruffed or not, the battle was over.

In practice, East refused to ruff, so declarer conceded a trump to East’s queen. East was then forced to lead a club or a heart, allowing South to discard his remaining diamond while ruffing in dummy. Declarer thus lost only a diamond, a club and a spade to finish with 10 tricks.

And what if West had turned up with the Q-x-x of trumps? In that case, after declarer cashed the top hearts and exited with a spade, West would have been forced to lead a diamond -- permitting dummy’s ten to score a trick -- or yield a fatal ruff-and-discard.

Tomorrow: An unusual defensive