First Things First

9th February – Board 12: North/South Vul. Dealer West.

The necessity for forward thinking could hardly be better illustrated than in the hand shown below where all too often the contract was defeated before it had really got going.

West	North	East	South
1NT	No	3NT	End

The bidding could hardly have been simpler and North made the usual lead of the two of hearts. What now? Assuming North has led away from either the ten or the queen, declarer can count on one spade trick, three hearts, at least four diamonds – unless South has all four outstanding cards - and at least two clubs – but there is a catch! You might as well play the jack of hearts from dummy at trick one and when it holds try a top diamond, noting the fall of the jack from South. It might seem obvious to carry on with diamonds but if you play the king and another, losing to North, that player might switch to a spade and if you duck that trick but take the continuation you will find that you never make a club trick as South will have a million spade winners by then. Now try leading a club after taking the diamond ace. As it happens South will either play the ace or the ten but whatever he does you can establish three club tricks now and consequently need no more than two diamonds. If you are allowed to win the club with South playing a small card you can revert to diamonds and can guarantee four tricks in that suit while the spade ace is still intact. And if North wins the ace of clubs and switches to a spade you have the chance of the clubs being 3-3, or the ten being doubleton and if all that goes wrong making a correct guess in diamonds. As an aside the odds are two to one on North having the diamond queen – the Principle of Restricted Choice – and the spades are blocked if you win the first round. In any event playing in the prescribed manner would give you twelve tricks.