Elegance and Complexity at the Card Table: A Lesson in the Game of Bridge

On "Bank Holiday Monday," the cards were shuffled in the garden on a sunny afternoon, and an exciting bridge duel commenced. Amidst a gentle breeze lightly brushing over the green tablecloth and accompanied by a pitcher of Pimms, the game unfolded. Our main protagonist found herself in a slight dilemma and temporarily lost focus on her contract. The bidding process revealed interesting strategies. East quickly jumped to 4♠ to prevent further bids. South, believing that East's strength lay in the spade suit and that her partner held many points in the side suits, confidently bid a small slam. The dummy turned out to be a minimum but with good prospects. Despite the opportunity to ruff the first A♠, the declarer drew all of West's trumps. After the diamond maneuver failed and West stubbornly held onto the remaining club cards, the game was lost. But what path should South have taken? The key to success lies in assessing the distribution. The bids suggest that East holds seven or eight spade cards, which implies that West has many cards in the side suits. Likely, two club tricks would have been necessary. Any further trump declarations would have resulted in West continuing to play hearts until the dummy had too few trumps to make the required tricks. To succeed, South should, after the initial ruff, play to the K♥ in the dummy and then execute a diamond finesse. Even if this strategy fails and West returns a heart, the declarer remains in control: play ♦AQ and discard the third club in the dummy. Finally, ♣AK and the remaining tricks would be won alternately by ruffing in the spades and clubs to achieve twelve tricks.