Contract Bridge

STEVE BECKER / CHOOSING THE BEST LINE OF PLAY

It is not unusual for declarer to have more than one way to play a hand. Usually, the choice is made by relying on percentages or on information gained from the opponents’ bidding or play. Of course, if declarer could see the defenders’ cards, there would be no problem.

Regardless of the factors on which declarer bases his play, one constant is always present: He dismisses from consideration those distributions that render the contract unmakeable. He also ignores those hands where his play makes no difference. Instead, he concentrates on cases where what he decides to do can make or break the contract.

Here is a typical case. South is in three notrump, and West leads a spade, on which East plays the ten. Let’s first assume declarer wins with the king and tries a club finesse. East takes the king and returns a spade, and South goes down two.

But declarer makes the contract if he does not win the first trick. That’s what he’d do if he saw the adverse cards, but more importantly, it’s what he should do even if he doesn’t see them.

Why? Because by ducking he succeeds when the spades are divided 6-2 and East has the king of clubs. This is because East won’t have a spade to return after he wins the club king.

South likewise succeeds if the spades happen to be divided 4-4, in which case what he does doesn’t really matter, since the defenders can’t score more than three spades and a club.

Finally, if West has five spades and East three, not taking the first trick again does no harm, though it does no good either. Assuming best defense, declarer can’t make three notrump if the spades are 5-3 and East has the club king, since West would duck the spade return at trick two and eventually defeat the contract.