Contract Bridge

The Making Of A Miracle

It didn’t take long for declarer to see that the contract was pretty hopeless. Given the bidding, East obviously had all six clubs, and he would just sit there and wait for his three club tricks. South regretted his failure to double five clubs, which would have gone down at least four tricks.

Upon further thought, though, South realized there was a real possibility of making the contract, and since no other line of play had any chance of success, it was worth trying.

So he ruffed the diamond lead, being careful to trump with the eight. He then played the A-K of hearts, noting that both defenders followed suit. Next, he cashed the A-K-Q of spades, and when everyone again followed suit, it looked as though the miracle would actually take place.

Declarer now made his bid for fame and fortune. He led the deuce of hearts, and West, whose hand had been shorn of everything but diamonds and the heart jack, had to win the trick. If he next led the ace of diamonds, declarer would discard a club, and would then discard two more clubs on West’s forced return of another diamond to dummy’s Q-J-10.

West tried to extricate himself from his hopeless position by leading a low diamond. Dummy won the trick as declarer discarded a club, but South returned a diamond and discarded another club. West won but again had to lead a diamond, and the contract was home.

Why did South trump the opening diamond lead with the eight? Because he needed to preserve the deuce as a sure way to force West into the lead. Otherwise, West might have dropped the J-10 of trump under the A-K to avoid being endplayed.