Contract Bridge

The problem of which long suit to establish in notrump play, when there is a genuine choice, does not always lend itself to hard and fast rules. While general bidding principles can be memorized to help one arrive at the proper contract, there are relatively few corresponding principles to direct declarer to the best line of play.

Take this case where South is in three notrump and starts with seven sure tricks. The two more he needs must come from either spades or clubs.

In selecting which suit to attack, South should not be influenced by generalities such as always attacking the longest and/or strongest suit. Instead, the decision should be based on plain common sense — that is, which suit is more likely to produce the desired result.

If spades are attacked, he should ask himself: Will nine tricks surely materialize? The answer is probably, but not certainly. Thus, in the actual deal, if South wins the heart lead and finesses the jack of spades, he will go down after East wins with the queen and returns the ten of spades. Dummy’s strong spades eventually prove to be declarer’s weakness.

But if South takes the time to ask himself whether he should attack clubs instead, he finds that making 10 tricks is an absolute certainty. Regardless of how the East-West cards are divided, declarer cannot be stopped from scoring three clubs, three hearts, two diamonds and two spades after forcing out the ace and queen of clubs.

In this case, simple logic leads South to conclude that the clubs are a safer bet than the spades. This time, the seemingly weaker suit gets the nod.