BRIDGE

SATURDAY, AUGUST 6, 2022

Many contracts depend on how the defenders’ cards are divided in a specific suit. Take this case where South is in six notrump. He has 11 sure tricks, and his only chance for a 12th lies in scoring four diamond tricks instead of three. Ordinarily, South would have to find the diamonds divided 3-3 to achieve this objective. But here, if he plays correctly, declarer can make four diamond tricks even though the suit is divided 5-1. He can accomplish the feat without seeing East’s hand. South wins the club lead with the king and plays the king of hearts. Let’s assume West takes the ace and continues with the jack of clubs, dummy winning with the ace as East discards a heart. At this point, declarer has no idea how the diamonds are divided or how he will ultimately fare. So, in order to learn more about the opposing distribution, he next cashes four spade tricks, discarding a club from his hand. These plays shed light on the matter after West shows up with four spades. The four spades, added to the six clubs and ace of hearts West has turned up with, account for 11 of West’s original 13 cards. When South next leads a heart to the 10 and West follows suit, he learns that West was dealt at most one diamond. Declarer is finally ready to tackle the diamonds and starts by cashing the king. When West produces the 10, South is in business. He plays another diamond from dummy, and if East follows suit with the seven, South finesses the eight, knowing that it will win since West cannot have another diamond. Observe that East can’t foil declarer by playing the nine instead of the seven. In that case, South wins with the queen and returns to dummy with a heart for another diamond lead through East’s J-7.