BRIDGE

It isn’t difficult to make six spades on this deal if you see the opposing cards. Declarer takes the opening club lead with the ace, leads a low spade and lets it ride if East follows low, then later takes a winning heart finesse to bring home the slam.

But when the opposing hands are not known, making the slam is a much more complicated proposition. If, for example, West held the king of hearts, declarer should not tackle the trump suit in the fashion described above because he could no longer afford to lose a trump trick.

Since in practice declarer cannot see the defenders’ cards, he should adopt the method of play that offers the best chance of success. In some cases, he will go down no matter what he does. Thus, if the East-West hands in the actual deal are exchanged, South cannot prevail.

The correct approach is to postpone the decision on how to play the spades until declarer knows whether he has to lose a heart trick. So at trick two, South should lead a heart from dummy and take the finesse.

If the finesse fails, by far the best remaining hope is to cash the spade ace, hoping to drop the singleton king. But if the heart finesse succeeds, declarer has a sure thing. All he has to do is to make certain he does not lose two trump tricks.

This can be accomplished easily by crossing to dummy with a diamond to lead a low spade. South then adapts his play to whatever card East plays.

If East shows out on the first spade, declarer takes the ace and returns a spade toward the queen to limit himself to one trump loser. If East produces a spade honour instead, South takes the ace and is home free. And if East follows to the first spade with the three, declarer plays the 10 to assure the loss of only one trump trick.