Bridge: with no other suits played, six trump winners may bamboozle opponents

You are in a slam, with just one entry to dummy. For what will you use this vital asset?

Bidding
Dealer: East
Love All

Having opened with a game-forcing 2C, the jump-rebid to 3S sets that suit as trumps and asks partner to cue-bid any ace held. Roman Key-Card Blackwood followed, revealing no kings. West led 5♠; declarer considered, since a club loser is inevitable, that the hand rests on how the diamond suit is handled. Should he play for J♦ to drop, or take the finesse? 

South drew three rounds of trumps, cashed ♦AK, and watched West discard 8♦, then 9♦, and East 2♦d followed by 3♦ — each falsely showing an odd number of cards in the suit. Trusting them, declarer laid down Q♦ and his slam was gone. East’s J♦ and a club trick left him a trick short. 

As so often, running off all the trumps may prove revealing. West is quite likely to pitch a diamond — since this is how he can tell partner to guard that suit and, if he does, when ♦AK are cashed, West will show out, marking East with J♦. If, surprisingly, both opponents cling to diamonds, an attentive declarer — with “table presence” — may discern that East is holding length there since, with four discards to find, he will have much thinking to do.

Read Paul’s previous Bridge columns at ft.com/bridge-card-game