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Priority of problems.

There are times when the safest way to play a suit has to take a back-seat as there is a more pressing issue to consider. That would be the case with today’s deal.

 

West leads K. What is your line? Trumps break 2-1.

There is no chance in this deal for any discarding as the two hands above have identical shape. We have a certain spade loser, one or two in diamonds depending on where the ace is and unless East has specifically K doubleton, a loser in clubs. That’s 3 or 4 losers depending on where the A is.

One issue is that on a really bad day, the club suit could provide two losers. That is why the safest way to play the suit for one loser is to lay down the ace, just in case West were to hold singleton king. However, there is a more pressing problem today, in diamonds.

Also, winning the opening lead, drawing trumps and exiting a spade may appeal on some days, though is not generally going to be successful as West can exit with a club (unless they held K doubleton themselves). The spade exit needs to wait.

So, it’s back to the mundane, that of winning A, drawing trumps and then playing low to the Q. If the finesse loses, you will rely on a well-placed A or misdefence (West cashing A). On this day, the club finesse worked. South could then hope the K would fall doubleton, but it did not as both defenders followed with low clubs. However, the contract was then secure. Now was the time to exit with your spade. West must win the trick and has an unpleasant choice of options:

South knew that, too. West can either give declarer a ruff and discard or play A. Either way, even though A was off-side and there was a certain club loser, South only lost three tricks. The spade trick had to be lost before South lost a club trick to East but after two rounds of clubs had been played.

The four hands were:

 

 

The safest line in clubs had to be overlooked in order to avoid the loss of two diamond tricks: diamonds were a higher priority.

Richard Solomon

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