Aces On Bridge

“That arithmetic is the basest of all mental activities is proved by the fact that it is the only one that can be accomplished by a machine.” -- Arthur Schopenhauer

At the Dyspeptics Club, when South heard East pre-empt in spades, his natural ebullience persuaded him that his partner would not contribute wasted values in that suit, so that six hearts would have decent play. Right he was, but the same optimism that had taken him to slam led to his misplaying his contract and suffering the consequences.

After the lead of the spade nine, South elected to win and draw trumps, ending in dummy. He assumed West, who had not preempted, held the diamond queen, so he cashed the king and finessed, only to claim he was unlucky when the missing queen turned up in the wrong place.

It often seemed that North liked nothing better than to have a reason to criticize his partner, but on this occasion the intricacies of the play so occupied him that his analysis was delivered quite politely. What line of play do you think he suggested?

After drawing trumps and ruffing out the spades, we find East with nine cards in the majors. Next, declarer plays off the club ace and king. When East follows twice, cashing the diamond king and running the 10 is guaranteed to endplay East to give a ruff-sluff if he can win the trick. But if East turns up with a singleton club, he surely has an 8-1- 3-1 pattern. South can cash both top diamonds and play a third to endplay East in parallel fashion.

If East turns up with a club void, South leads a diamond to the ace and finesses in diamonds with complete confidence, because West can have no more diamonds.