BRIDGE

BRIDGE

Both vulnerable. South deals.

NORTH

xK Q 7 6

uJ 8

v8 7 6

wK J 8 3

WEST EAST

x10 5 4 2 x9 8

uQ 7 6 5 uK 10 9 4 3

v5 2 vQ 10 4 3

wQ 10 6 wA 5

SOUTH

xA J 3

uA 2

vA K J 9

w9 7 4 2

The bidding:

SOUTH WEST NORTH EAST

1NT Pass 2w Pass

2v Pass 3NT All pass

Opening lead: Five of u

The auction is perfectly reasonable, and would be duplicated by many, but reasonable bidding does not always lead to a reasonable final contract.

The opening heart lead was covered by the jack, king, and ace. It seemed that the only chance for the contract was to find the missing diamonds splitting 3-3 with East holding the queen. This is roughly an 18 percent chance— not very good.

There is some ancient advice for declarers in a no trump contract: “When you’re not sure what to do, run your long suit. Something good might happen.” The “long” suit in this deal is spades, which is not very long at all. Still, look what happens to East on the run of the spades. East needs two discards, but what should they be? A low club is easy, but the second discard hurts! A low diamond would give the contract away after a winning diamond finesse, so East is forced to part with a heart— the potential setting trick. South now has the option of taking a successful diamond finesse, then leading a club to dummy’s jack. The king of clubs would be the ninth trick, as the defense would no longer have enough heart winners to defeat the contract.

South might get the position wrong, of course. He might cash the ace-king of diamonds before leading a club, or lead a club to the king. The point is that running the long suit has given him a chance that wasn’t there before.

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