Contract Bridge

From darkness into light

Assume you’re in four hearts and West leads the queen and another club, which you ruff. The problem is to find the best method of play — and this is not easy even if you look at all four hands.

There are several assumptions you’re entitled to make without seeing the East West cards. One is that the trumps are divided 3-2, since you have no chance to make the contract if they’re divided 4-1. Another is that East, who opened the bidding, has the ace of spades.

It would be easy enough to make 10 tricks if West had three hearts and East two. You could cash the K-A of trumps, force out the ace of spades and later ruff a spade in dummy.

The danger in playing this way is that East might have three trumps, as in the actual deal. If you drew two rounds of trumps and then played a spade to the queen, East would take the ace and cash his high trump. You would then go down one, losing two spades, a heart and a club.

However, assuming East has the spade ace, there is a way to make 10 tricks regardless of which defender has three hearts. To accomplish this, you play the A-K of hearts and then lead the six of spades from dummy.

If East goes up with the ace, you no longer need to ruff a spade, so let’s say he plays low. In that case, you win the spade with the king, lead a diamond to the ten, ruff a club and continue with a diamond to the ace.

If East ruffs, your only remaining loser is a spade; if he discards, you ruff dummy’s last club and continue playing diamonds. Whatever East does, you are sure to finish with 10 tricks.