BRIDGE

To end the week, here is an opportunity to work out the future by looking at all 52 cards. The contract is four hearts. West leads the spade king: three, two, four. West shifts to the diamond queen. Would you prefer to be the declarer or a defender?

When North made a transfer bid, South jumped to three hearts, a superaccept showing four-card support, a maximum and a doubleton somewhere.

South is trying to avoid losing two spades and two clubs. The defenders are working to stop South from taking one spade, five hearts, two diamonds and two clubs.

South wins trick two with his diamond king, draws trumps in two rounds, plays a diamond to the ace and leads a low club. Here, if East plays the six, South can cover with his nine and make the contract. East needs to get on play to push a spade through South, so must split his honors. (I believe that he should play the queen, the card he would lead from a queen-jack combination.)

Now comes the really tough play. After South covers East’s queen with his king, West must duck the trick. It goes against the grain to concede a trick “unnecessarily”; however, if West wins with his ace and returns a club, East takes the trick and leads a spade, but South wins with his ace and cashes the 10-nine of clubs, discarding dummy’s last spade.

Instead, after West ducks the club, East can win the next club trick and return a spade to kill the contract. South loses two clubs (slowly) and two spades.

Well done if you chose to defend. Triply well done if you spotted West’s key play.