BRIDGE PUZZLE

HOOK OR DROP?

Both vulnerable. South deals.

Opening lead: Queen of ♥

Taking nine tricks in a no-trump contract can be a difficult chore when there is no long suit to run. In today’s deal, North-south have 26 points between them yet there are only six top tricks. Work to do!

South ducked the opening queen of hearts lead in dummy to “freeze” the suit, meaning that neither side could play the suit without giving away a trick. West might have shifted, but he couldn’t know who held the 10 of hearts and it would be silly to shift if they were running the whole suit. The jack of hearts continuation went to dummy’s king and East’s ace, and declarer won the next heart with his 10.

A low club from South saw West hop up with his queen, cash the nine of hearts, and shift to the jack of spades. Declarer won in hand with the queen and cashed three club tricks, noting the jack of diamonds discard by West. Two high spades revealed that West started with 4-4-2-3 distribution, but the jack of diamonds discard remained a riddle to be solved.

Was the jack from jack-10 or from kingjack? South reasoned that West might have ducked the queen of clubs earlier if he didn’t hold the king of diamonds. Ducking would be the right play if East held the king of clubs. Should West hold the king of diamonds however, along with his other known high cards, he would know that partner held nothing other than the ace of hearts. Accordingly, South led a diamond to his ace, and great was the fall thereon, as the late Edgar Kaplan was fond of saying. Nice play!