Last Word

Some plays are much harder to find than others. Here is one that almost anyone might overlook. West led the jack of hearts against four spades. Declarer won with the king and played the jack of spades from dummy. East grabbed the ace and returned the singleton jack of clubs.

West had no trouble reading East’s return. He took the ace and returned the queen. When declarer played the king from dummy, East ruffed, and South then had to go down one, losing a heart at the end.

The outcome was certainly unlucky, and yet the fact is that South’s defeat was his own fault. When West led the queen of clubs at trick four, South should have played low from dummy!

Had he ducked the queen, West could then have done no better than continue with the ten of clubs, which South would duck again, preserving dummy’s king as a trick.

After ruffing the ten of clubs and drawing trump, declarer would discard his heart loser on the club king and wind up losing only the ace of trump and A-Q of clubs.

There is little doubt that most declarers would cover West’s queen of clubs with the king at trick four. They would not realize that by ducking the queen and conceding that trick to West, they were simply swapping an immediate club loser for an eventual heart loser.

Ducking the queen of clubs is a supersound safety play that preserves the 10 tricks South is looking at. It protects against the possibility of a club ruff — at no cost — and therefore is the right play.