Contract Bridge

When failure seems certain, you have two choices: You either give up and move on to the next deal, or you can try to find some way out of your fix. If you are a fighter by nature, you can attempt to apply the basic principle in bridge that whenever it is clear that normal play is certain to fail, you should look for a solution that may be well off the beaten path.

Consider this deal where West leads the king of clubs against your four-spade contract. You know that West has five clubs for his overcall, and that if you play the ace from dummy, East will trump it. It is equally certain that East will then lead a heart, after which you can kiss the contract goodbye.

You should therefore apply the doctrine of self-preservation by refusing to play the ace of clubs on the king! After East discards a heart and West continues with the queen of clubs, you play low from dummy again! West then leads the five of clubs to dummy’s ace, and East, as expected, ruffs and returns a heart.

You have now lost the first three tricks, but you are no longer headed for down one. You win the heart with the ace, cash the ace of trump and lead the ten of clubs from your 10-8. West, who has the J-7 of clubs at this point, can do no better than cover the ten with the jack. You ruff in dummy, return to your hand, cash the eight of clubs — discarding dummy’s remaining heart — and so make the contract.

The deal demonstrates once again that you can’t play bridge mechanically. The temptation to play the ace of clubs at trick one must be resisted when it is obvious that that play is certain to lead to defeat.