BRIDGE

FRIDAY, MARCH 24, 2023

1. You are West, defending against Four Hearts after this sequence of bids:

You lead the ace of diamonds, on which East plays the four and South the king. How would you defend the hand?

2. You are declarer with the West hand at Six Notrump. North leads his fourth-best heart, the three. How would you play the hand?

1. It is obvious from the bidding, and from seeing dummy, that you have no chance to stop the contract unless declarer has no spades. Acting on this assumption, you should therefore lead the 10 of hearts at trick two! Your only real hope to defeat the contract is that this extraordinary play will prevent South from reaching dummy to make use of the A-K-Q of spades.

As it happens, this play strikes gold. Not surprisingly, South has: and your trump shift (and subsequent trump continuation) sinks the contract. Had you continued with a diamond, declarer would win with the queen, lead the king of clubs and make the contract, losing only a trump, a diamond and a club after gaining entry to dummy with a third-round club ruff. The trump lead at trick two appears suicidal, but actually offers the best chance to defeat the contract.

2. Win the heart lead with the queen and continue with the A-K-J, discarding two clubs from dummy. Then lead a club and finesse the nine. If South wins with either the queen or king, he is endplayed in three suits and must hand you your 12th trick regardless of which suit he returns. This approach makes the contract a 100% certainty. Any other line of play might offer a high probability of success, but you might get unlucky and go down.