Bridge Corner
By Gary Mitchell, Nov 17, 2006

The bidding

South opens a very nice, weak two-Spade bid, and North has enough to raise to game. Absolutely—for sure—maybe! 

The play

Declarer wins the opening Club lead and pulls trump. In order to avoid the possibility of losing two Heart tricks, declarer is going to go after Diamonds, hoping they are 3–3. So, a Diamond is led and East is in. East returns a Heart and the 9 forces the Queen. Declarer now plays Ace and another Diamond. Again, East is in and leads another Heart. Down one. 

Declarer’s plan was sound. The problem was having to let East in twice. Was there any way around it?

Of course! Believe it or not, the error was made at trick one. Play low on the opening lead. Now, suppose West leads a Diamond. You play low, and East is in and switches to Hearts. You win the Queen, play the Club Ace and discard a Diamond. Now, you can play the Diamond Ace and trump a Diamond. When they all fall, you can discard a Heart on the fourth Diamond. East only gets in once, not twice.
 

Questions: gary@smabridge.com 
Lessons: Call 152-6351.