Contract Bridge

Queen of spades

The thought processes of most top-notch cardplayers are markedly similar in most situations. It doesn’t much matter whether the player is defending or declaring; the thinking practically always follows the same logical lines. Consider the present case where South was declarer at four hearts and West led the spade queen. Three rounds of spades forced declarer to ruff, and left him with the problem of how to lead twice from dummy toward his diamond and club holdings when there was only one entry in dummy. But the solution was really not all that difficult to find. The opening lead had marked West with the Q-J of spades, so East had to have the rest of the key honor cards for his opening notrump bid. The only question remaining was how to take advantage of these clues, and it did not take South long to find the answer. After trumping the spade at trick three, he cashed the A-K of trumps and then led the jack of clubs! This sequence of plays rendered East helpless. He could do no better than win the club with the king and return a trump to dummy’s jack. Declarer thereupon led the ten of clubs, presenting East with a Hobson’s choice. If he followed low, the lead would remain in dummy and declarer would then take the winning diamond finesse to bring in the contract. And if East instead covered the ten of clubs with the queen, South would win with the ace and return the three to dummy’s nine in order to take the diamond finesse. All of which goes to show that if you make it a regular practice to keep your mind on the task at hand, wondrous things can sometimes happen.