Contract Bridge

South gives West a bum steer

The outcome of many deals is for the most part predictable, but in some cases one side or the other achieves a better result than would normally be expected.

For example, take this deal where South gets to six clubs on the sequence shown. It is true that six notrump with South as declarer is a much better contract; indeed, it can’t be defeated regardless of how the East-West cards are divided.

But theory and practice are two different things, and South wound up playing the hand at the practical contract of six clubs instead of the theoretically best contract of six notrump.

The slam would have gone down one but for an unusual play by declarer. West led the ace of hearts and would surely have led another heart had South followed suit with the four.

But declarer, concluding that West would lead another heart if he played his four on the ace, played the king instead! This made it difficult for West to continue with either the queen or a low heart, and, rightly or not, he switched to the jack of diamonds at trick two.

Declarer’s brilliant falsecard thus enabled him to make the slam. Perhaps West should have led a second heart, but it was understandably difficult for him to assume that South had dropped the king, a winner, on the ace, instead of the four, a loser.

South could not have felt certain that his king play at trick one was correct. West’s four-heart bid might have been based on six hearts rather than seven, and in that case the falsecard could have proved fatal. But South backed his judgment that West had a seven-card suit and was handsomely rewarded for his imaginative play.