Bridge - The Scotsman 23/06/2012

By LIZ McGOWAN
Published on 23/06/2012 00:00

How many contracts have you lost by playing too quickly at trick one? I, for one, prefer not to keep count.

West was top weight for his jump rebid, so when partner made a couple of cuebids with a hand that had no high cards in clubs he checked on aces with Roman Keycard Blackwood: partner showed two keycards and he bid on to slam. North led the two of spades. How should you play?

Declarer counted 11 sure tricks. North might easily make an attacking lead against a slam, so he tried the queen of spades in case that was his 12th trick. South won the king and returned the jack to dummy’s ace. Declarer drew trumps, which took four rounds when South had only one club. South threw two spades and a diamond, dummy discarded a diamond and the losing spade. Now declarer tried hearts, playing king, ace and ruffing the third round. All would be well if the queen dropped doubleton, or the suit broke 3-3, but North showed out on the third heart and the queen had not appeared. Declarer could cross to the king of diamonds and ruff a fourth heart to establish a long heart in dummy, but he had no entry to reach it.

This was unlucky, not least because North had found the best lead, and South had seized his chance to remove dummy’s entry. But declarer missed a stronger line of play. Which spade would you play at trick one? It does not help your entry position to play the ace, so how about the eight? South can win cheaply, but if he continues spades he gives you your slam. When he switches to another suit you have the extra entry to dummy that you need to establish and cash the long heart.

The deal comes from a 1951 par contest composed by Albert Benjamin; he reported that none of the players made the slam!