BRIDGE

Many newer players have great difficulty recognizing what a ruff and discard can do to dramatically affect the result of a trump-suit contract. For declarer: allow a seemingly impossible contract to be made.

For defenders: give away a trick that declarer could never muster on his own.

Today’s deal from my archives is an excellent example of the disastrous (for the defense) effect a ruff and discard can have and how a skilled (and lucky) player can orchestrate the situation to leave the defenders with no answer.

North’s passed-hand response was a specialized version of Drury: four-plus cards in spade support with 10-11 high-card points.

That was certainly enough encouragement for South to use Blackwood (Key Card responses) and find two aces but no trump Queen opposite and forge on to the small slam.

As so often happens, dummy was mildly disappointing: neither useful club shortness nor an obvious way to discard the third-round club loser both hands possessed.

That seemed to make the slam’s success dependent on the arrival of the spade Queen in the first or second round. But winning the diamond King and cashing the top spades brought bad news but South wasn’t quite ready to cue the plump chanteuse.

Instead, a diamond to the ace and a diamond ruff, followed by the top clubs and three rounds of winning hearts. Finally, a spade exit to the Queen and if you’ve been crossing off the cards, you’ll see East can’t find a club to cash and dummy and declarer both have no more red cards. To allow a ruff of East’s red-suit exit in one hand while discarding the club loser from the other.