The relatively safe declarer-play

Albert Einstein’s Theory of Relativity confuses almost everyone. However, he did try to explain it in layman terms thus: “When a man sits with a pretty girl for an hour, it seems like a minute. But let him sit on a hot stove for a minute — and it’s longer than any hour. That’s relativity.”

In bridge, there are relatively safe contracts and relatively unsafe ones. But sometimes a contract that appears safe suddenly is jeopardized. Then the declarer may have to find a clever maneuver to reach home unscathed.

North might have shown his diamond suit, but he preferred to take the uncomplicated route to what he hoped was going to be a lucrative rubber.

After winning the first trick with dummy’s club queen, declarer immediately called for a low diamond. East’s heart discard was a rude shock. An apparently easy contract had suddenly turned nasty.

As East seemed to be short in both minor suits, South’s first thought was to finesse the diamond jack. Later, he would play East for the spade queen. But in a fleeting moment, he saw that that was an unsafe line, requiring a finesse to succeed.

Instead, South won trick two with the diamond ace, then he led the diamond five. West had to duck his king, so dummy’s queen won. Declarer returned to hand by playing a club to his ace. Finally, South ran the spade jack through West. Whatever the outcome of the finesse, there were 12 guaranteed tricks: three spades, four hearts, two diamonds and three clubs. North and South were pleased when this line produced an overtrick.