Contract Bridge

Keep your eye on the ball

A declarer who wants to get the most out of his cards must of necessity keep close track of the defenders’ distribution. For example, examine this deal where West led the K-A and another club, ruffed by East and overruffed by South. Declarer crossed to the spade king and lost a heart finesse to West’s king, and West returned a trump.

Having lost three tricks, South now had to avoid a spade loser to get home safely. He appeared to have two chances: If the diamonds were divided

3-3, the spade jack could be discarded on dummy’s fourth diamond; failing that, South could finesse the jack of spades (he could not see, as we do, that West’s queen was at this point singleton).

But South also saw a third possibility, based on what he had already learned about the opponents’ hands from the early play. So after drawing a third round of trumps, he cashed his last trump, discarding a spade from dummy, and then played the A-K-Q of diamonds.

This proved very illuminating. Although the diamonds did not divide 3-3, the contract was nevertheless assured. Declarer’s last two cards were the A-J of spades, while dummy still had the eight of diamonds and a spade. East’s last two cards, though unseen, were known to be the jack of diamonds and a spade.

Furthermore, since West had shown up with six clubs, three hearts and two diamonds, he was known to have started with exactly two spades, one of which he had already played. And so, armed with the certain knowledge that each opponent at this point had only one spade, South led a spade to the ace and dropped West’s queen to make the contract.