Contract Bridge

In many deals, a favorable result can be achieved simply by going through the motions. Thankfully, for those who appreciate the challenges the game offers, there are many other deals where going through the motions will not be good enough.

Consider this case from a regional team event. Both Souths wound up in three notrump after East had pre-empted in spades, and both Wests led a diamond. Both Easts won with the king and returned a diamond to South’s queen.

A low club was then led toward dummy, both Wests rising with the ace and returning a third diamond to establish their suit. It was here that the paths diverged.

At the first table, declarer was certain that West had the king of clubs, since it would have made no sense for him to take the ace on the first club lead rather than allow East the chance to win and return a third diamond. Afraid — correctly as it turned out — that West could win the next club lead and cash two diamonds to defeat the contract, South saw no choice but to play the A-K-Q of hearts and hope for a 3-3 split.

After the suit failed to divide evenly, South led a spade to the king, took a spade finesse, cashed the spade ace and finished down one, losing the last three tricks — a club, a diamond and a heart — to West.

At the second table, South also concluded from West’s ace-ofclubs play that leading another club would be fatal. But he saw no advantage to test the hearts at this point. Instead, he took his three spade tricks first.

Superficially, this might seem to make no difference, but in fact it made all the difference in the world. West had to find three discards on the spades, and after letting go two low clubs, he was without recourse when the third spade was cashed. In practice, he pitched a heart, handing declarer four heart tricks and the contract. But had he decided to discard a diamond instead, South could then safely have conceded a club without trying the hearts, and the contract would still have been made.