Contract Bridge

Structural Visualization

You run into good, bad and average bridge players wherever you go. Some bid well and play their cards badly; others bid badly and play their cards well; some bid and play well; others bid and play badly.

The South in this deal was obviously from the group that plays their cards well. We wouldn’t know how to classify his bidding from just this one hand — all he did was to open one notrump — but he certainly displayed a fair amount of skill in the play after a Stayman sequence landed him in four hearts.

South took West’s kingof-spades lead with the ace, played a heart to the king and a low club back. East followed low, and South won with the king. After cashing the Q-A of hearts, declarer led another club from dummy, East taking the ace and returning a club to South’s queen.

Declarer still had three tricks to lose — two spades and a diamond — but by this time he was certain he could avoid the loss of one of them and so make the contract.

He knew East had no more spades; otherwise, East would have returned a spade rather than a club after taking the ace. West’s hand therefore became an open book. He had started with six spades and had already shown up with two hearts and three clubs. Hence, he could not have been dealt more than two diamonds.

So, South cashed the A-K of diamonds and led a spade. West took his two spade tricks but then had to yield a ruffand-discard, handing South the contract.

Note that South could have placed East in a similar position by leading a third diamond rather than a spade at the critical moment. It would then have been East rather than West who would have been forced to yield the fatal ruff-and-discard.