Dubious Logic

Planning at trick one

There are few essential routines to acquire at the bridge table but the pause at trick one to plan the hand must be one of them. S. J. Simon in his classic 'Why You Lose At Bridge' regarded declarer's hasty play to the first trick as '..perhaps the most common fault in Contract [bridge]'. He was probably right. It is not always the actual play to trick one that is the problem; it's neglecting the importance of planning that is most damaging. Take this example from recent match play;

I can't say I like double very much with the South hand (prefer one spade) or West's scary raise to four diamonds either but that's what happened at my table. West led the king of diamonds and declarer won in dummy – no mistakes yet. He briefly took stock and (as he would later argue) 'he could only take one finesse' so he played a club to the queen. Thereafter he had to play trumps out of hand losing three tricks. There was no route to dummy for the heart finesse and when the queen failed to drop he was down one.

Had he take a moment longer it would have been clear that he most likely did have an entry to dummy, the fourth round of hearts. That was controlled by the outstanding trumps so first thought should be given to drawing them. As we can see, there is positional advantage in starting trumps from North. A lead towards hand, intending to play an honour loses only to singleton ace or king in West (it is quite possible that East doesn't have an opening bid). If declarer can escape with only two trump losers he can afford to lose a heart and reach dummy for the club finesse.

How should he decide which play to make when in dummy at trick one? One way of arguing this through with yourself is to ask, when does the one line gain and the other lose? Here, the immediate club finesse only benefits South when it loses. If spades transpire to be 2-2 then the third round can be used for the heart finesse. Playing spades at trick is wasted on a 2-2 break and when dummy is reached on the third round of the suit, it is not clear which finesse to take; hearts or clubs. Of course, with diamonds appearing to be KQ at least with West, it is a near certainty that East holds the king of clubs and this chance is quite remote compared to all the times East has three spades to the AK

Published Saturday 21.Apr.2001