Contract Bridge

Bad Luch Comes In Bunches

This is one of those hard-luck deals where you can’t help sympathizing with declarer, even though you might not have played his cards exactly the way he did.

West led a diamond, taken by South with the king. Declarer had eight solid tricks and quite a few chances for a ninth. He started by leading a low heart to the jack at trick two. This gave him two chances for an extra trick: one if West had the queen, and another if the opposing hearts were divided 3-3. But East took the jack with the queen and returned a heart. When South next played the A-K, he learned the hearts were 4-2.

Declarer now tried a low club to the queen, hoping West had the king. But East took the queen with the king and returned the jack of clubs to South’s ace.

The situation took a further turn for the worse when declarer next led a diamond to the queen, hoping West had led originally from a three-card suit. But after East showed out, South decided that his last remaining chance was to try a spade finesse.

So he led a spade to the king and finessed the jack on the return. East won with the queen and cashed his remaining clubs to put the contract down two. All of which indicates that bad luck comes in bunches, though it’s true that South could have made the contract easily had he known the queen of hearts was doubleton.

One reasonable but somewhat unusual method of play — without the benefit of a peek at the East-West cards — is to allow East’s ten of diamonds to hold the first trick! Assuming West made a normal lead from a fourcard suit, East would then be forced to return a spade, a heart or a club, all of which would hand declarer his ninth trick.