All it takes is the will to win

There are very few hands that demand a virtuoso performance by declarer for the best result to be achieved. In the great majority of deals, declarer’s task consists mostly of determining what line of play offers the best percentage chance of succeeding, utilizing the clues that are almost always present, and playing the right card each time it is his turn. This might sound like a tall order, but it is not really as difficult as it sounds — assuming that one has a desire to play well.

Take today’s deal, for example. It is not an unusually difficult hand to play correctly, but many declarers would go down at three notrump — largely because they might proceed without giving the matter much thought.

The natural line of play appears to be to duck the first two spade leads and win West’s next spade with the ace. After cashing four clubs and the A-K of hearts,

South plays the ace and a low diamond toward the jack. But when it turns out that West has the king of diamonds instead of East, the contract goes down one.

Actually, the contract is virtually a sure thing from the outset. There is no reason for declarer to run the risk that West has the king of diamonds. South can avoid that trap by ducking the king of spades at trick one but winning East’s return of the jack. He then cashes four clubs and two hearts, as before, to bring his total to seven tricks. His five remaining cards consist of four diamonds and a spade, while dummy has a spade, the queen of hearts and three diamonds.

Instead of playing a diamond at this point, South leads his spade. West takes three spade tricks but is then forced to return a heart or a diamond, handing declarer his ninth trick.