BRIDgE

In the race to set up tricks in a notrump contract, declarer will usually have time to work on establishing length tricks in one suit — but only one.

And if he needs tricks from more than one source, switching horses in midstream will rarely work.

In his partnership’s Precision System, North’s opening showed a limited hand (11-15 points) with at least five clubs, and his response to the negative double simply denied four hearts, a sequence that might have lost a possible 5-3 heart fit, but no harm, no foul this time, even though the notrump game reached on momentum was not a thing of beauty.

West’s spade lead went to three, eight and King. South started on clubs: King and low to the ace when a finesse for the Queen might have been a good idea. A third club to East’s Queen to set up two tricks would have left that defender in a very awkward position,one that he might have tried to extricate himself from by switching to the diamond King — good for South, not so good for East-West!

But declarer, perhaps disappointed that the club Queen hadn’t dropped in two rounds, decided to look for greener pastures in the heart suit but when dummy’s Jack was covered by the Queen, South played low from his hand.

King of diamonds to the ace for a second round back toward the closed hand: Queen and out from East.

By that stage, South had done so much bobbing and weaving from one suit to another that the contract was in ruins and down one was inevitable: maybe less than what South had feared when he saw the dummy! Feedback always welcome at tweedguy@gmail.com