Bridge hands to me are often akin to a great painting or a great song – there are some that you just don’t mind looking at, or listening to, time and time again. Today’s hand is one of those – a simple-looking hand but one which is so easy to get wrong, and I think that is why it appeals to me. I have given the North-South hands to a number of expert players over the years, and the miss rate is close to 50 per cent, and that is a lot (see Figure 1).

The bidding was good (see Figure 2):

North knew that spades were going to be the trump suit after South’s opening – the 2 heart bid was simply to establish the game force and then the 3 spade bid was a slam try since they were already in a game forcing situation. South understandably refused the invitation to slam but North was not done – 4NT was Roman Key Card Blackwood, 5 diamonds showed one key card, 5 hearts asked whether South had the trump Queen and 5 spades said “no” (5NT would be yes) and North then, reluctantly, settled for the small slam.

West led the club King and the slam looked a good one to South. Declarer won and cashed the Ace, King of spades to disclose the trump loser – all of a sudden the slam needed a lot of good things to happen in order to make.

Declarer needed to discard two clubs before East ruffed in and naturally started on the diamond suit before hearts – he went to discard one club on the third diamond but was shocked when East ruffed this and cashed a club for down one!

Unlucky? Not really.

The full hand (see Figure 3):

As counter-intuitive as it is declarer must start on hearts first! In order to get two discards declarer needs East to hold at least three hearts – if hearts are 3-3 after the third round declarer must stop there and revert to diamonds, hoping East has at least three, and then play the 13th heart.

Here, however, declarer strikes gold by playing hearts first, as it is West who shows out on the third round – now declarer can safely play the fourth round and discard a club. Now declarer plays on diamonds and when East ruffs it is too late, as declarer simply discards the second club- slam made!

Fascinating, and completely logical, but not at all easy, as playing on diamonds first seems so “obvious”!

Expect to see this hand in the column again in a couple of years!

BRIDGE CLUB RESULTS

Friday, February 11

1. Aida Bostelmann – Heather Woolf

2. Wendy Gray – Richard Gray

3. Martha Ferguson – Joyce Pearson

Monday, February 14

North-South

1. Gertie Barker – Jane Smith

2. Jane Clipper – Michael Tait

3. Elysa Burland – Molly Taussig

East-West

1. Charles Hall – Martha Ferguson

2. Tracy Nash – Des Nash

3. Louise Rodger – Dorry Lusher

Tuesday, February 15

North-South

1. Marion Silver – Duncan Silver

2. Jean Schilling – Desiree Woods

East-West

1. Malcolm Moseley – Mark Stevens

2. Sarah Bowers – Stuart Clare

Wednesday, February 16

1. Gertie Barker – Jane Smith

2. Judy Bussell – Dorry Lusher

3. Molly Taussig – Tony Saunders

Thursday, February 17

1. Elizabeth McKee – Linda Pollett

2. Gertie Barker – Rachael Gosling

3. Marge Way – Jon Glynn