From where are the tricks coming?

FRANK-N-ERNEST® GRIZZWELLS® BIG NATE® ARLO & JANIS® ZITS®

Mort Walker, the cartoonist behind “Beetle Bailey,” wrote, “It’s not true that nice guys finish last. Nice guys are winners before the game even starts.”

In a bridge deal, there will be 13 winners, the cards that take each trick. Of course, unless the contract is a grand slam, neither side is aiming to win them all, just the number to make or break the contract.

It is easier for declarer because he can see his whole army, but he has to aim higher than his opponents. Each defender should ask himself from where the necessary winners may come. In this deal, how should the play proceed after West leads a top-of-nothing diamond nine against four spades?

South might have rebid three notrump, which presumably North would have passed. The only way to defeat that contract is for West to lead a club. Then East must take the trick with his queen and shift to a heart, all of which would be most unlikely to happen.

Against four spades, East, after taking the first trick with his diamond ace, contemplated shifting to the club king, which would have facilitated the defense here. But he was worried that it might cost a trick if South had three clubs. So East returned the heart seven, another top of nothing.

Now West was in a quandary. Did East start with only two hearts? If so, continuing the suit would work. But if South had four hearts, maybe he would have rebid three hearts. Judging correctly, West shifted to the club eight, a third top of nothing. Now the defenders had to take two hearts, one diamond and one club.