Contract Bridge

When planning the play of a hand, declarer should always ask himself what, if anything, can beat him.

If a threat is found to exist, countermeasures should be sought to neutralize the potential danger.

Take this case where a casual approach to the play of four hearts will very quickly lead to down one. If, for example, South wins West’s club lead in dummy and leads a heart, the contract is doomed. West takes the ten with the queen (or the king with the ace) and leads a second club. When declarer next leads another heart, West wins, puts East in with the ace of spades and ruffs the club return for the setting trick.

While it is true that it takes an unlucky lie of the opposing cards to defeat four hearts, South should nevertheless make the contract. Since the only way he can be beaten is if the opponents score a club ruff in addition to the A-Q of hearts and ace of spades, all his efforts should be directed to defusing that threat.

The proper play is to lead a spade rather than a trump at trick two, continuing with a second spade if the first one is refused. In the actual case, East wins with the ace but cannot subsequently regain the lead to give West a club ruff, and the contract is made.

The beauty of the spade play at trick two is that declarer cannot lose more than three tricks, despite West’s doubleton club, no matter where the missing aces and the heart queen are actually located.

If, say, East happens to have the ace of hearts, South will still prevail. In that case, after the spade ace is taken by either opponent and a club is continued, declarer wins in dummy and leads a heart. East can rise with the ace and give his partner a club ruff, but that’s all for the defense. South can win any return, draw the one missing trump and claim the rest of the tricks.