The Hour – 23 May 2004
North dealer. Both sides vulnerable.
Opening lead — ten of spades.
The study of card combinations is a project that yields dividends time and time again. For example, consider the North-South diamond holding in today’s deal, and let’s say that in a given case — not necessarily this one — your aim is to avoid losing more than one trick in the suit.
One method of play is to lead low to the ace and return the ten. If East follows low, you can let the ten ride or go up with the queen. If East has the jack, playing low on the ten wins, but if he has the king, the queen is the winning play. Whether you are successful depends on how good guesser you are.
Another approach is to lead a low diamond from the closed hand and finesse dummy’s eight. If the eight loses to the jack, you later try another finesse, hoping your right-hand opponent was not dealt the king and jack. The second method of play is much better than the first because there is about a 75 percent chance that East does not hold both honors, while if you play the ace followed by the ten, your chances will not be nearly as good as that.
Even so, you shouldn’t blindly choose the second line of play, for there might be other factors to consider. In the present case, for instance, you can improve your prospects even further by adopting a third line of play.
Accordingly, you win the spade lead with the ace, draw trumps, cash the king of spades and ruff a spade. Next you cash the A-K-Q of clubs and lead a low diamond to the eight.
East takes the jack, but even if he has the king, the slam is home: Because you have taken the precaution of eliminating the side suits before tackling diamonds, there is nothing he can do to stop you from scoring the rest of the tricks.