Contract Bridge

When declarer can make a contract only if the opponents’ cards are divided in a certain way, he should assume that distribution exists and plan his play accordingly. This principle is self- evident, but applying it to a particular hand is sometimes not so easy.

Here is a gem of a hand played by Allan Cohen in the Life Master Pairs Championship some years ago. It would seem that South cannot avoid losing two spades, a heart and a club for down one, but Cohen found a way to make the contract after West led the king of clubs. Furthermore, there was nothing the defenders could do to stop him.

He won the club with the ace and returned a club to his ten. West took the queen and cashed the ace of spades, on which East signaled with the seven. West then shifted to a low diamond.

Gauging the situation perfectly — including the realization that West’s ace of spades was a singleton because he had failed to lead another spade — Cohen won the diamond shift with the ace, cashed the ace of trump and king of diamonds, then led the queen of diamonds.

By this time, it was clear to Cohen that his only chance of landing the contract was to find West with an original holding of the K-x of trump. In line with this, he ruffed the queen of diamonds with dummy’s queen of hearts, cashed the jack of clubs — discarding the eight of spades — and then led a trump.

In true storybook fashion, West was forced to win with the king and return a diamond or a club. This allowed Cohen to discard his jack of spades as he ruffed in dummy, bringing a satisfying conclusion to a very well- played hand.