Contract Bridge

Rationale of good declarer play

Here is a test of good technique in declarer play. Let's say you're in four hearts and West leads the queen of spades. You play low from dummy and ruff the spade continuation. How would you proceed?

The club loser is inescapable, so the problem is to avoid losing two diamond tricks, one of which must be lost in any case. Two factors are obvious. If the trumps are divided 2-2, you can make the contract by drawing them and playing the A-K and another diamond. The fourth diamond can then be ruffed in dummy if the missing diamonds are not divided 3-3.

Likewise, you will be in good shape if the diamonds are divided evenly, whether trumps are drawn early or not. So you proceed on the assumption that both suits will break badly and consider what, if anything, you can do about it.

Note that you cannot afford to test the trump situation by first drawing two rounds. If you did this and then played the A-K and another diamond, you could be defeated by a trump return, as in the actual deal.

The way to give yourself the best chance is to cash one high trump at trick three and then lead a low diamond! This gives you the maximum protection against bad breaks.

Assume the diamond is taken and a spade is returned. You ruff and cash a second round of trumps, hoping they are divided 2-2. But when West shows out, you next play the A-K of diamonds, still hoping for a 3-3 break in that suit.

The diamonds don't split, but you get lucky when it turns out that East is the one with the greater length. This allows you to ruff a fourth diamond in dummy safely, and you wind up making the contract.

At no point were you sure you'd make four hearts, but at least you followed the line of play that offered the best chance of success.