Contract Bridge

Assume you, South, are declarer at three notrump, and West leads a low spade. How would you proceed?

When the deal occurred in a team- of-four match, the declarer at the first table took East’s ten of spades with the jack and played the king of diamonds. West won with the ace and, fully aware from the play to the first trick that there was no future in continuing spades, shifted to a club. This struck gold in his partner’s hand, and the defenders quickly rattled off four club tricks to score a one- trick set.

The declarer at the second table, more cognizant of the danger of a club switch by West, decided to disguise his spade holding. After playing a low spade from dummy at trick one, he won East’s ten with the king!

This inspired bit of subterfuge had the desired effect. When West next won the ace of diamonds, he led another spade, convinced that his partner had the jack. Declarer then added insult to injury by allowing the spade return to run to his jack and finished with 11 tricks.

We will not belabor the point of whether the second West should have fallen into this trap. Instead, we would rather bestow praise on declarer, whose clever deception greatly enhanced his chances of making the contract. The spade trick he was willing to sacrifice at trick one was not vital insofar as making three notrump was concerned, since he had 10 sure tricks without it.

But if West had the diamond ace and East the club ace, throwing a little dust in West’s eyes could do no harm, and might do a lot of good.