Sunday, September 15, 2002		Bridge

Playing the contract on a club lead

Dealer North, N-S vulnerable

HOW would you have played the contract on a club lead? 
There are 12 tricks on top and if trumps break 2-2 you can ruff a heart in dummy. If the ace and king of trumps reveal a 3-1 split, you can ruff a heart with dummy’s queen, provided the hearts break 4-2, As you see from the diagram, attempting a heart ruff will end in defeat. Nevertheless, the contract was made at the table. Declarer cashed the spade ace at trick 2, then ruffed a spade. After two rounds of trumps he ruffed another spade, the queen falling from East. Declarer placed West with 6 spades and three diamonds. Since he had led a club it was not possible for him to guard the heart suit. The scene was set for a classic double squeeze. Declarer cashed all his trumps, followed by the three top hearts. West’s last three cards were the spade king and two clubs. He had to throw a club to guard against the dummy’s last spade. The spade was thrown from dummy and East now had to discard from the jack of hearts and two clubs. He too had to throw a club and dummy’s K-5 of clubs scored the last two tricks.