Bridge

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 21/05/2016 (3654 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

THIS deal occurred at total point scoring, wherein the defenders diligently try to defeat the contract and do not overly concern themselves with stopping overtricks.

It demonstrates why sometimes the best or correct play is obvious; at other times, that play may be at least partly concealed and require considerable thought to pierce its veil.

Against silent opposition, North-South bid as follows:

S N

1♥ 2♥

3♦ 3NT

4♥

You are on opening lead, holding:

WEST

♠ 10 7 6 2

♥ K 4

♦ K 10 9 6 4

♣ J 5

You lead the jack of clubs against South’s contract of four hearts and this dummy appears:

NORTH

♠ K Q 5

♥ Q 8 3

♦ J 7

♣ 9 7 5 4 3

Your partner plays the eight of clubs and South wins the trick with the ace. He now plays the ace of spades, the jack of spades to dummy’s queen, and on a third round of spades discards the deuce of clubs from his hand. Next, dummy’s jack of diamonds is run to your king. How should you continue?

It is easy to appreciate that declarer’s distribution plainly is 2-5-4-2. Moreover, he must hold the ace-queen of diamonds, since partner would not have played a low diamond under dummy’s jack if he held a doubleton diamond honour. It looks as though South intends to ruff a diamond in dummy, and he may get an unpleasant shock to find that your partner can overruff.

It is possible that if you exit with your remaining club at this point, you and your partner may be able to establish a defensive cross-ruff. But in order to overruff dummy twice, partner’s trumps would have to be at least as good as ace-nine-low, which is not impossible.

But this is the time to pause, and to work it out. If partner has the ace of trumps, there is no need for him to hold the nine as well. You can defeat the contract simply by drawing trumps, since declarer will be left with a losing diamond. Your proper play, then, is the king of hearts.

Declarer’s hand:

SOUTH

♠ A J

♥ J 10 9 6 5

♦ A Q 8 5

♣ A 2

The defenders continue with three rounds of trumps, and South is left with an unavoidable diamond loser. Down one!