Contract Bridge

SOME RULES SUPERSEDE OTHERS

In many deals, declarer can overcome a bad lie of the cards if he does not let his attention stray from the primary objective — namely, to make the contract.

Take this case where South is in four hearts and West leads K-A-Q of spades. Declarer ruffs, cashes the ace of trump, both defenders following suit, and must now be especially careful with his next move.

Ordinarily, the next play with this trump combination would be a low heart to the king. The reason is obvious. If the opposing hearts are divided 3-2, no harm can come from leading to the king. But if they are divided 4-1 and East has the J-9-x-x, his hearts can be picked up without loss after cashing the king discloses the bad break.

This approach would be the right one to apply in most hands. But there is an even more important principle that takes precedence over the general rule, and it states that making the contract is always the first priority.

In the actual deal, four hearts can no longer be made if a trump is led to the king at trick five. South cannot recover, no matter how he chooses to continue.

But observe that if the queen of trump is played at trick five, the contract becomes a certainty regardless of how the opponents’ cards are divided.

Let’s suppose that after you play the queen, one opponent shows out. It makes no difference whether East or West started with four trumps, because in either case you simply stop leading trumps and start leading clubs.

This guarantees that you can dispose of the J-5 of diamonds on dummy’s clubs — even if the defender with the J-x of trump ruffs at any point — because the king of hearts is still in dummy as an entry to dummy’s remaining clubs.