Contract Bridge

Very few deals require one to do something highly unusual in order to obtain the best result. But such situations do occur, and one test of a player’s skill is the ability to rise to that occasion when the opportunity presents itself.

Take this deal where South was in three notrump and West led the spade seven. East won with the king and returned the jack, ducked by declarer. East then shifted to the six of hearts, taken by the ace. The queen-of-clubs finesse lost to East’s king, but that was the last trick for the defense, and South made four notrump.

What’s wrong with this picture, you might ask? The play and the outcome seem entirely normal, yet the fact remains that East almost surely would have defeated the contract he had defended differently. Instead of playing the king of spades at trick one, he should have played the jack!

Had he done this, allowing declarer to win the first trick with the queen, three notrump would have gone down one. Sooner or later, South would have attempted the club finesse, losing to the king, and East’s king-ofspades return, overtaken by West with the ace, would have settled declarer’s hash.

How can East know at trick one that he should violate the general rule of playing third-hand high? Because he knows from the Rule of Eleven that South has only one spade higher than the seven West led.

If South’s high spade is the ace, he would undoubtedly hold it up until at least the second round of the suit, so that East will not be able to return a spade later.

If the high spade is the queen, though, declarer is very likely to take the first trick, after which he will be fighting a losing battle.