A tough textbook honor-card play
There are many books about defense in bridge that cover the various possibilities. But there is one play that is still missed by many players below expert level, even though it is mentioned in those works.
South’s sequence described a balanced hand with a good 22 to 24 points.
South ducked West’s spade-queen lead and won the second spade with his king. Declarer saw that he had eight top tricks. A 3-3 club break would produce a ninth winner, but that was against the odds. Hoping he might make something from the diamonds, South immediately led his six to dummy’s nine. East won with the queen and fired back a spade. However, declarer won, took a second diamond finesse and cashed the diamond ace. When the king dropped, South claimed 11 tricks.
West was unhappy. “Why didn’t you duck the diamond queen?” he asked East. “If South had the diamond king, he would have cashed it first, just in case you had a singleton queen.”
As P.G. Wodehouse put it, though not exactly disgruntled, East was far from gruntled. “If I duck my diamond queen, South has nine tricks: two spades, three hearts, two diamonds and two clubs. Our only chance is for you to play your diamond king at trick three. That kills the diamond suit stone dead. If South wins with dummy’s ace, I take the second round with the queen and return a spade for down one. If he ducks your king, hoping you have the king-queen, and takes a finesse on the second round, he goes down two.”
Watch out for this second-hand-high play when dummy is so sparse.