I was West on this deal from the Chicago Summer Nationals, and my son Rich was East. Our opponents bid routinely to 4 on the auction shown. I had a tough choice of opening leads and decided on the A, which was fortunate. Note that after a diamond or trump lead, declarer can succeed easily by establishing dummy’s fourth diamond for a spade discard.
Question: Would you rather play or defend? That is, after the A lead, can 4 be made with best play, or can it be beaten with best defense?
On my A Rich played the four — a good play to discourage a continuation despite holding the king-jack — so at trick two I switched to the 6; ten, jack, ace. Declarer drew trumps in two rounds and led the 2; seven, three, five. I led a third spade to trap the queen, and there was no way for declarer to succeed. So it seems you should defend, right?
Well, no. The contract can be made with a clever sequence of plays. After winning the A, declarer draws trumps and must unblock the J. Next a club is led to East, who has only one safe exit: a low diamond to the jack, ace. Then declarer leads all of his trumps to reach a three-card ending. North remains with the Q and K-10. If East keeps the K and Q-8, he is thrown in with a spade for the endplay; or if he blanks the Q, declarer can drop it.
© 1998 Richard Pavlicek
by Richard Pavlicek by Richard Pavlicek