Bridge in the Tri-Cities: Careful Declarer Play

Opening Lead: Three of spades

This deal came on a Monday night matchpoint game.

The Bidding: South liked his hand and jumped to game in spades. North used Blackwood to learn that the pair had only one loser among the key cards. A reasonable small slam was bid.

The Play: How would you play? Declarer should have played the king of clubs at trick two. West would lead another trump and declarer could trump a club in dummy, ruff a heart in hand, pull trump and lead to the ace of diamonds to play out all his hearts and claim the slam. Twelve tricks are available on any lead. How would you play with a diamond lead?

What Happened? No one made the slam or took 12 tricks except the winning pair, Andy Hesser and Herb Wampole, who bid 4S and made six. Andy got a diamond lead, took the ace and discarded three diamonds on good hearts. He then led a club and played the king. He was able to ruff two losing clubs and claim 12 tricks.

Bridge Futures: The Richland Duplicate Bridge Club (RDBC) has a game at the Richland Community Center (RCC) at 5:30 p.m. every Monday except holidays. RDBC also plays on the first, third and fifth Friday at 12:30 p.m. at the RCC in the lounge. Call Tom Edwards at 946-1824 for details.

This story was originally published August 12, 2017 at 6:05 PM with the headline "Bridge in the Tri-Cities: Careful Declarer Play."