The Bridge Corner
By Gary Mitchell, July 06, 2007

Opening Lead: Diamond King

The play: You count one Heart loser and one Club loser, making five. What an easy game. So, you win the opening lead and play two rounds of trump. You get the bad news. Next, you play the top two Clubs. West trumps, pulls another round of trump and leads a Diamond. You are going to run out of trump on Diamond leads and go down two. Wow! From an overtrick to down two.

When you saw just two losers, you should have asked, “What can possibly beat me?” Bad splits in Hearts and Clubs, that’s what. So, take out protection. Play the Clubs first. West can trump the second Club, but now you have all the time in the world to set up your Clubs by trumping one in dummy. The defenders get two Hearts and a Club. Try it. Pessimism has its place.

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