TECHNIQUE BRIDGE PUZZLE

Both vulnerable. South deals.

Opening lead: Jack of ♣

North bid four hearts when accepting South’s game try in case South had a fourcard heart suit. South correctly went back to spades. The game was a little pushy, needing a 3-2 split of the missing spades and a successful guess for the jack of hearts. South also had to ruff a club in dummy at some point, but it was important to wait a while for that. Should declarer try to ruff a club too soon, a defender with a doubleton club and a doubleton spade might overruff, leaving South with three, or possibly even four, trump losers. The same defender might be able to get a second club ruff.

The correct technique is to win the opening club lead and then play a low spade from both hands. Declarer will reclaim the lead, say with a club continuation, and bang down the ace of spades. leaving one trump outstanding. Then it will be safe to ruff a club in dummy. A side benefit of using the correct technique is that declarer will discover, on this deal at least, that East started with only two clubs. That will give South good reason to infer that East was likely to have started with the greater heart length.

Should East have started with four hearts, he was twice as likely to hold any missing heart, as West would only have started with two hearts. Accordingly, declarer should finesse East for the jack of hearts and bring his contract home. Nicely played!