Contract Bridge

Not many rubber-bridge players get excited by scoring one or two overtricks as a result of good play. To make five spades when the contract is four, or three clubs when the contract is two, is not viewed as an earth-shaking event. Only the inveterate duplicate player, to whom an extra trick is both a shibboleth and a godsend, strives for it with undiminished zeal.

And yet, while overtricks lack the dramatic impact of games and slams bid and made, extra tricks do amount to a tidy sum over a period of time and should not be totally ignored.

Today’s deal occurred in a Life Masters pair event many years ago. It provides a typical example of how a declarer can try for extra tricks without placing the contract in jeopardy. Although it actually arose in a duplicate game, the hand carries a lesson of equal interest to both the ardent rubber-bridge player and the duplicate fanatic.

At several tables, South wound up in three notrump, and the heart queen was led. South won with the king and then cashed five diamond tricks, hoping the defense would discard enough clubs to enable him to make two club tricks instead of one. When this didn’t happen, all these declarers finished with just nine tricks.

But some of the more astute declarers did not immediately cash their best suit first. Instead, they played the ace of spades at trick two, hoping either opponent had the singleton king or queen, or the K-Q doubleton (altogether, about an 18% possibility). When the king appeared, they continued with a spade and eventually made five or six notrump.

A gain of 60 or 90 points on one deal is not to be sneezed at, especially when the effort to make extra tricks involves no risk. If an honor does not fall on the ace, declarer can then abandon spades and lead a club to establish his ninth trick.