THE ACES ON BRIDGE

“Be not angry that you cannot make others as you wish them to be, since you cannot make yourself as you wish to be.” -- Thomas a Kempis .....................

There was a defense to South’s contract of four spades on this deal, but it required imagination by West. It proved no surprise when he failed to find the right switch at trick two -- to be fair, not many players would.

The opening lead of the club king was easy enough, but a glance at dummy made it clear that his partner could hold virtually nothing in the way of high cards. With just three defensive tricks himself, West decided that the only chance lay in finding East with a void in diamonds. Accordingly, he switched to the diamond jack, and dummy’s queen won. True, when West took his trump ace, he was able to give East a ruff, but it was only a loser that he trumped, and now the diamond king had no further part to play.

Do you have any thoughts on how the defenders might have prevailed? Try the effect of the diamond king at trick two! Declarer takes this and plays trump, but West wins the first round and follows with the diamond jack. Dummy’s queen is ruffed away and South is still left with a losing diamond.

It may be slightly fortunate to find East with just sufficiently good hearts to deny declarer four tricks in the suit, but this was surely more likely than finding him with a void in diamonds. In any event, the contract will probably still be defeated on best defense if East does have a diamond void.