BRIDGE MASTERCLASS

South plays in 3Nt and West leads ♥8. Declarer wins in dummy and leads a diamond on which East plays the king! how would you play the hand from there? This deal was featured from a U.s. National Pairs tournament, and the author extols the brilliance of East’s defence rather than commentating on declarer’s carelessness.

south reasonably assumes that East has either a doubleton or singleton diamond; in the latter case, his contract has no chance.

he therefore plays ♦AQ and a third diamond. he gets an unpleasant surprise when East wins, and plays a low club to defeat the contract.

While East’s play of ♦K was a clever move, it would have been more routine if he had also held ♦9. in this latter case there would have been no cause for declarer to neglect the standard safety play to protect his vulnerable ♣K.

Re-entry to dummy to repeat the finesse would have given him at least one overtrick.