Contract Bridge – Resolving a difficult guess

South dealer.
Both sides vulnerable.
NORTH
[S] K 10 3
[H] 7 2
[D] K 10 6 2
[C] J 10 9 4
WEST
[S] 8 7 6 5 2
[H] 4
[D] Q 9 5
[C] A K 6 5
EAST
[S] Q J 9
[H] Q 9 6 3
[D] J 7 4 3
[C] 8 2
SOUTH
[S] A 4
[H] A K J 10 8 5
[D] A 8
[C] Q 7 3
The bidding:
South West North East
1 [H] Pass 1 NT Pass
4 [H]
Opening lead — king of clubs.

There are many ways a declarer can try to ferret out information that is critical to the success of his contract. Most of these are standard operating procedure on every deal, such as referring to the opposing bidding or drawing the proper inference from the opening lead. Once in a while, though, a declarer has to exercise a bit of ingenuity to find out what he needs to know.

Consider this case where South was in four hearts and West led the K-A and another club. After ruffing the third club, East exited with the queen of spades, taken by declarer with the ace. South then cashed the ace of hearts and, after everyone followed low, had to decide what to do next.

There were two choices: He could continue with the king of hearts, hoping that East had originally held any three hearts — in which case the queen would now fall — or he could cross to dummy and take a heart finesse, in effect assuming that East had started with the Q-9-6-3.

Percentage-wise, this was a very close proposition, but South found a way to resolve the issue without resorting to guesswork. At trick six, he led a diamond to the king and then played the jack of clubs!

Without giving the matter much thought, East ruffed to prevent a discard and thus solved declarer’s problem. But even if East had not ruffed, South could discard the diamond ace and then lead a trump. After East followed with the nine, it would not have been difficult to diagnose why East had refused to ruff the previous trick.

Purists might argue that an alert East who started with the 9-6-3 of hearts could lure South into going wrong by refusing to ruff the jack of clubs with the singleton nine of hearts. But since most defenders would probably not make this play, the recommended approach is superior to subjecting oneself to an outright guess.

(c)2022 King Features Syndicate Inc.

Sponsored by Newt’s Games and Playing Cards