Bridge

At the bridge table, one can sometimes be distracted, concentrating on one suit and not all four. In today’s deal, how should South play in four spades after West leads the club king, and East puts up the 10?

North used a Texas transfer to push his partner into four spades.

South saw nine top tricks: six spades, two diamonds and one club. He thought he could gain at least one more winner from clubs. So, hoping that West would fall for the Bath Coup, declarer played his club seven at trick one.

The rest of the play took nary a second. West continued with a low club. East ruffed and cashed his high hearts to defeat the contract. What did South overlook?

Any time the hand with the majority of the trumps is longer than his partner’s hand in a side suit, declarer should think “ruff losers in the short trump hand.” Here, South should have won with the club ace, cashed the spade ace and diamond ace, played a diamond to the king, ruffed the last diamond in his hand, drawn trumps and claimed. He would have taken six spades, two diamonds, one club and the diamond ruff.