Contract Bridge

There are some hands where developments force declarer to take an entirely different tack than he had originally planned. These are the hands that test a declarer’s resourcefulness and adaptability.

Consider this deal where South got to three notrump and West led a heart. Declarer took East’s ten with the queen and, naturally enough, tried to develop dummy’s spades. But when he played the ace and another spade and West discarded a club on the second round, South’s chances took an immediate turn for the worse.

East won the eight of spades with the jack and shifted to the diamond ten. After winning the ten with dummy’s king ( West could not take the ace without handing South his ninth trick), declarer did not make the mistake of playing another spade. Had he done so, East would have won and returned a diamond to sink the contract.

Instead, South shifted gears at this point and set about laying the groundwork for an endplay. He began by cashing four clubs, reducing all hands to five cards.

West had a choice of discards on the clubs, but there was no escape. In practice, he retained the K-J- 8 of hearts and A-J of diamonds. Declarer then played the ace and another heart. West was able to take two hearts and the ace of diamonds, but had to concede the game- going trick to the queen of diamonds at the end.

Observe that if West had elected to hold four hearts and the singleton ace of diamonds as his last five cards, South would have countered by leading his low diamond before cashing the ace of hearts. Once declarer adapted to the circumstances he encountered, all roads led to nine tricks.