BRIDGE

You wish you were in a different contract? That happens to all of us from time to time, but our job is to concentrate on the contract we are in and give it our best shot.

Dealer South

Vulnerability North-South

West

pass pass

North East

(1) 4-4 in the majors

(2) Heart void, 4+ spades (3) Encouraging

West leads the King of diamonds. When dummy goes down, South may regret not having bid the grand slam, but his job is to concentrate on making 12 tricks, and only a combination of spades four-nil and clubs five-nil can cause problems with that goal.

Declarer wins the ace of diamonds and leads a spade to the Queen, careful to play a top honour from the hand with two to cater to a four-nil split either way round – and suddenly thoughts of the grand slam go out of the window as East discards a diamond.

Not only are spades four-nil, but think about what that means for clubs; West overcalled 1‰, has just turned up with four spades and supported hearts at the five level – surely he has 4-4-5-0 distribution. Straightforward play produces 11 tricks, but no more, as declarer is unable to ruff out the clubs. What about a dummy reversal?

Taking two ruffs in the East hand also comes to 11 tricks, but it also brings something else into the equation. Let’s see how the play goes.

At trick three, declarer ruffs a heart, then concedes a diamond. East wins and it doesn’t matter what he returns, but let’s say that he plays the 10 of diamonds. Declarer ruffs and cashes the ace of spades, then leads a spade to the 10.

There are six tricks to be played, and East is down to šA ª10 9 7 5 2. Declarer cashes the King of spades, and East has to surrender.

The combination of dummy reversal and squeeze brings home the bacon.

A Q J 5 2 7 6 3

10 9 7 5 2 A 9 7 4 3 š–

‰

ª

K Q 10 5 K 8 4 3 9 5 2 Q4

A J A K J 8 6 3

Suppose that West had not bid 5š, instead passing. Declarer should still have played in the way that he did. He would no longer know that it was necessary, but it couldn’t do any harm. When a contract looks easy, assume the worst and see if there is a way to overcome the worst.