BRIDGE

South had a plan, perhaps even a good plan, for how to make his game but, marred by an “automatic” play, the chosen plan wasn’t quite good enough.

Declarer won the spade ace, drew two rounds of trumps while preserving dummy’s King for use as a later entry and followed with three rounds of diamonds.

The plan: declarer hoped that West would win the defensive diamond trick and that the suit would split 3-3 (a doubleton Queen and Jack would be okay too!) so that the thirteenth card in the suit could be used to discard a club loser from the closed hand.

In addition to the 3-3 split he hoped for, South really wanted West to win the defensive diamond trick to avoid having the club King led through.

Sadly for South, East could not be prevented from winning the third round of diamonds and when he insightfully returned the club Queen, South’s plan was foiled.

Back up to trick one, so very often the trick on which many contracts are made or set, certainly the case here after South made the automatic play of winning dummy’s spade ace.

A better play: play low from dummy and let West hold the trick despite South having started with only one spade.

Declarer can win the next trick, likely a second high spade from West, and discard a small diamond on the spade ace. Two top hearts, again saving dummy’s King, followed by the King and ace of diamonds and a thirdround diamond ruff.

Over to the trump King to use that established thirteenth diamond for the crucial club discard without the threat of East having gained the lead.