Contract Bridge

There are times when a player can accomplish by guile what he cannot accomplish by routine play. For a good example of how an imaginative declarer can sometimes outwit the defense, consider this deal where West led the three of hearts against three notrump.

East won the opening lead with the ace, on which South dropped his queen!

It is hard to fault East for thinking that his partner had led a heart from the 10-87-3-2 and that declarer had the K-Q alone. (South, however, was in good position to judge that West had only four hearts, since the three was presumably West’s fourthbest heart, and South had the deuce in his hand.) East therefore returned the jack of hearts at trick two, won by declarer with the king.

South then lost a diamond finesse to East’s king, but the best East could do at this point was to return a heart and hold declarer to nine tricks.

Now let’s go back to trick one and have the declarer play the deuce of hearts on East’s ace. In that case, if we assume East is a competent defender, he would shift to the king of spades at trick two and eventually defeat the contract, scoring three spades, a heart and a diamond.

And just how would East know he should shift to a spade? Because, given the 24 points in high cards he could see in his own hand and dummy, he would know that South was sure to have the K-Q of hearts as part of his 15- to 17-point one-notrump opening.

East’s only real chance, therefore, would be to shift his attack to spades at trick two in the hope of establishing three tricks in the suit. In the actual case, declarer would be unable to prevail against this defense, and sooner or later he would go down one.