BRIDGE

Test your defensive play

You are West, and the bidding has gone:

You lead the queen of spades, won by South with the ace. Declarer cashes the ace of diamonds, plays a low trump to dummy's jack -- to which East follows with the nine -- and then trumps the queen of diamonds. Declarer next cashes the K-Q of trump, East discarding two diamonds, and then plays the king and another spade, East and South following suit to both spades. You win the spade with the ten. What would you lead now?

A simple count of the three suits declarer has played thus far tells you that he started with precisely three spades, five hearts and one diamond. His other four cards must therefore be clubs. Although you can't be sure precisely which clubs South has, you can assume from the bidding that he must have the ace.

Having gotten this far, you can place South with the A-Q-x-x, A-J-x-x, or Ax-x-x of clubs. In the first and third cases it doesn't matter whether you lead a club or give declarer a ruffand-discard at this point by returning a spade or a diamond. Declarer makes the slam in the first case and doesn't in the third, regardless of what you do.

This leaves you with the remaining possibility -- that declarer might have A-J-xx, in which case his hand originally looked like:

♠ Axx

♥ KQ 10 xx

◆A

♣ AJxx

It is only after you take the time to visualize declarer's possible club holdings that you find the correct play. After winning the spade with the ten, you return the jack of spades (or a diamond).

This allows South to ruff in one hand and discard a club from the other, but he must then guess which way to take the two-way club finesse after he ruffs. He might guess right and he might guess wrong, but that is much better than handing him the contract by returning a club after winning the third spade.

Tomorrow: Reducing the element of luck.

(c)2022 King Features Syndicate Inc.