Contract Bridge

Here is a case where a shrewd defender laid a clever trap for declarer to turn what appeared to be a certain loss into a tidy gain.

West, the hero of the tale, began by leading the king of diamonds against four hearts. Next came a low diamond to East’s ace, followed by another diamond, ruffed by declarer.

South now crossed to dummy with a club, led the heart jack and, after East played low, finessed. It was here that West made a most insidious play. Instead of taking his queen, he allowed the jack to win the trick!

Declarer swallowed the bait — hook, line and sinker. Convinced that East had the queen, and certain he was about to make the contract with an overtrick, South led dummy’s ten of hearts and repeated the finesse.

West pounced on the ten with the queen and played a fourth round of diamonds. South ruffed with the king of trump and cashed the ace, hoping to find the two missing hearts evenly divided. But when East showed out, declarer, out of trumps, had to go down two, losing a trump and a diamond to West at the end.

Note that if West takes the jack of hearts with the queen at trick five, declarer makes the contract easily, since a diamond continuation can be ruffed in dummy. Note also that if South does not take the second trump finesse but cashes his A- K instead, he retains control of the hand. West would then have the high trump, but declarer plays clubs until West ruffs, after which South scores the rest of the tricks.

West’s ingenuity notwithstanding, in the final analysis, it was South’s greed for an overtrick that led to his downfall. He should have followed rule No. 1: Making the contract is always the first priority.