Contract Bridge

by Steve Becker Famous hand

Not all deals played in tournaments are models of efficiency.

The plain fact is that some deals serve better as examples of inefficiency, as demonstrated by this case from the World

Pair Championship in 1966.

The final contract at most tables was four hearts, which was virtually a laydown. But our story concerns itself with the table where — believe it or not — the bidding went as shown, and South got to six hearts.

Luckily for declarer, West’s opening lead was the jack of diamonds rather than a club. Seizing this golden opportunity, South played dummy’s queen, which won, and continued with the ace, discarding the 10-8 of clubs from his hand. Declarer now could have made the slam, but he fell from grace when he led the jack of spades from dummy and finessed.

West won with the king and returned the king of diamonds, allowing East to shed his remaining spade, and there was now no way for declarer to make the slam. When South ruffed the diamond return and played the ace of spades, planning to trump the eight of spades with the ace on the next round, East ruffed to put the contract down one.

Perhaps justice was served by the outcome, but it is nevertheless clear that South should have made the slam after the opening diamond lead. The spade finesse at trick three was totally unnecessary. Instead, declarer should have led the nine of spades to the ace and returned a low spade to dummy’s jack. West would win with the king, but regardless of his return, declarer could not be stopped from ruffing the spade eight with dummy’s ace and scoring the rest of the tricks.

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