Contract Bridge

Wrong way to run a railroad

One tends to become a victim of habit in certain situations because they seem to be similar to others encountered previously. This tendency can prove costly at times, as witness what happened to South in this deal.

West led the jack of clubs against South’s four-spade contract. Declarer won with the queen, crossed to dummy with a trump and led a heart to the jack, losing to the queen.

West made the fine return of a trump, which declarer took in dummy to lead another heart. When the king lost to the ace, West returned a third round of trumps.

South was now at the end of his rope. He could not avoid losing a diamond and another heart, and so finished down one.

The ironic part of the hand is that if declarer had been dealt three small hearts instead of the K-J-5, he would surely have made the contract! In that case, given the same opening lead, he would have arranged to ruff one of his heart losers in dummy.

After winning the club, he would have immediately returned a heart. Then, regardless of what the defenders did next, he would play another heart, putting himself in position to trump his third heart in dummy and so guarantee the contract.

But the presence of the K-J5 of hearts induced declarer to cross to dummy with a trump in order to lead toward his heart honors. This in turn opened the gate for repeated trump leads by the defense and eventually brought about South’s downfall.

To avoid this pitfall, declarer should have led any heart from his hand at trick two, and 10 tricks would have been assured.