The Bridge Column

WHAT CAN HE DISCARD? North-South vulnerable, East deals Three no-trump was the popular contract when this deal was played at a tournament some years ago. 11 tricks would have been easy in a heart contract, but that was too difficult to bid. Most declarers won the first or second spade, depending on East’s play at trick one, and crossed to dummy in clubs. They led a diamond to their jack and lost that trick plus four spades to finish down one.

The few successful declarers took some time after winning the spade to consider what they knew about the hand. The opening lead made it look like East started with five spades. East surely had the ace of hearts for his opening bid, and probably the queen of diamonds as well. What would East have to discard if South ran his club suit right away? Assuming East played the jack of spades at trick one, he would have to come down to seven cards. He would have to keep all four of his remaining spades, or it would be safe for South to knock out the ace of hearts. He would also have to keep the ace of hearts, which meant that he could only keep two diamonds. The diamond finesse, at that point, would not be necessary.

Declarer cashed all five of his club winners. This left him with no entry to dummy, but that didn’t matter. He saw East discard one heart and three diamonds. South cashed the ace and king of diamonds and claimed his contract when the queen fell from West. Well done!