West dealer.

Both sides vulnerable.

Opening Lead — king of hearts

Just when you think you’ve gotten a firm grip on how to take a simple finesse, a new situation arises that sends you scurrying back to the drawing board. Consider this deal where the proper play seems to fly in the face of standard procedure.

First, let’s see how the hand was actually played. West led the K-A of hearts, ruffed by South, who drew two rounds of trump before leading a club to the queen. East took the ace and returned a club to the king, whereupon declarer led the queen of diamonds from dummy and finessed. West won with the king and cashed his high club to put the contract down one.

You could say that South was unlucky that East had the ace of clubs and West the king of diamonds. But, while this is true, the fact remains that declarer should have made the contract despite the unlucky lie of the cards.

Let’s go back to the bidding and see what South should know about the unseen hands. Clearly, West has to have more than just a good heart suit to justify his opening bid. At the very least, he must have the king of diamonds or ace of clubs as well.

Acting on this premise, South should lead a low diamond toward dummy’s queen after ruffing the second heart and drawing two rounds of trump. If West has the king and takes it, South can later discard two clubs from dummy on the A-J of diamonds and thereby limit himself to three losers. And if West doesn’t go up with the king, declarer won’t lose a diamond trick.

If West does not have the king, East will take dummy’s queen with the king, but this in turn would mean that West has the ace of clubs in front of the K-Q and so can score only one club trick.

Whatever the actual case, South can assure the contract by leading a low diamond toward dummy at trick five.

Tomorrow: — Famous Hand.

— Steve Becker