Contract Bridge

Asleep at the switch

A fine declarer, besides playing his cards well, does everything he can to induce the defenders to make a mistake.

Take this case where declarer combined both qualities to make a doubled contract that seemed doomed from the start.

West led a club, taken by dummy’s ace, and South faced his first problem — how to handle the spades so as to lose only one trump trick. (He also had two heart and two diamond losers to worry about.)

After deciding that East had the trump ace but probably not A-J-x, declarer led a low spade from dummy. East went up with the ace and played the diamond ace, hoping West had the king and could give him a ruff.

But when West produced the deuce on the ace, denying the king, East returned the king of clubs instead, ruffed by South. Declarer now made the key play when he led a low heart to the ace, West following suit with the seven and East the four. It was a very innocent-looking play that might have caught anyone asleep at the switch. But East was soon to learn why South had taken the ace so early in the proceedings.

Declarer next cashed the spade and diamond queens, preparing for the situation he hoped now existed. His efforts were amply rewarded when he led a heart from dummy, forcing East to win with the king. East had only clubs left and had to lead one, allowing South to dispose of his jack of hearts while ruffing in dummy. Declarer then claimed the rest to make four spades doubled.

Had South disclosed his intentions by drawing trumps and cashing the K-Q of diamonds before playing the ace of hearts, East might have jettisoned his king under the ace and thereby defeated the contract. Perhaps East should have done that anyway, but South’s smooth-as-silk operation caught him completely by surprise.