BRIDGE with Bob Jones

South took one look at dummy and was appalled to see that he had only eight top tricks. He needed 11! He made the farsighted play of covering the jack of diamonds lead with dummy’s queen. East played the king and South won with the ace.

South cashed the ace and king of clubs, drawing trumps, and then cashed the ace of spades. He crossed to dummy with a low club to the 10 and led a spade back to his 10, winning the trick. He was now up to nine tricks. He had lots more to do. He cashed the king of spades and then ruffed the jack of spades in dummy. 10 tricks.

He exited dummy with the nine of diamonds, cashing in on his good play at trick one. West won with his 10, but he was end-played. He had to lead a heart or yield a ruff-sluff, giving declarer an eleventh trick either way. Very well played!

On reflection, South thought that he would have been better off treating his hand as balanced and bidding three no-trump rather than three clubs. He would have had the same eight top tricks and a heart lead, likely on this lie of the cards, would have given him nine. Even on a diamond lead, a spade finesse would have given him his contract, and that would have been less than what he needed to make five clubs.