Contract Bridge

by Steve Becker Hindsight vs. Foresight

It is said that some of the best plays in bridge are made away from the table. Post-mortems often reveal winning plays that simply escape declarer in the heat of battle.

Here is a typical example. South was in four hearts, and

West led the king of clubs. Declarer ruffed, crossed to dummy with a trump, ruffed another club, played another trump to dummy and ruffed dummy’s last club.

Having set the stage for a possible endplay, South cashed the K-A of spades and exited with dummy’s ten.

He was hoping West would have to win the trick, in which case West would have been endplayed. But East won with the queen and shifted to a diamond, and South went down one.

Later that night, while trying to fall asleep, declarer realized that he should have made the contract. All he had to do was to discard a spade on the king of clubs at trick one!

West would have been rendered helpless by this play. Let’s assume he shifts to a trump at trick two. Declarer wins in dummy, ruffs the seven of clubs, cashes the K-A of spades and ruffs the ten.

South returns to dummy with a trump, leads the queen of clubs and discards a diamond on it. West wins but is stymied. He must lead a diamond or yield a ruff-and-discard, and either play hands declarer the contract.