BRIDGE

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2021

In many suit contracts, declarer is faced with the threat of being overruffed by one of the defenders. When the overruff seems imminent, declarer should study his options carefully before committing himself in one direction or the other.

Consider South’s problem in this deal where he reaches four spades on the bidding shown. East overtakes West’s queen-ofhearts lead with the king, cashes the ace and continues with the jack at trick three.

The bidding and East’s first three plays combine to make it a virtual certainty that West is out of hearts at this point, and the question is whether or not to ruff with the 10. To defuse the immediate threat, South could trump with the king, but the trouble with this is that it might promote the missing jack into a trick.

In the actual deal, if declarer trumps with either the 10 or king, he will go down one. Both plays establish a trump winner for West, and when South later tries a club finesse, East’s queen scores the setting trick.

If ruffing high or low were declarer’s only options, he could not succeed as the cards lie. But there is a third option that makes declarer a very strong favourite to finish with 10 tricks.

His best play is to discard a club at trick three instead of attempting to win the trick. By doing so, declarer telescopes both of his potential losers into one trick, leaving him in the driver’s seat.

Regardless of what East plays next, declarer is home free. Another heart lead by East can be overruffed by dummy if West ruffs, after which South has the rest of the tricks.