Most experts, we believe, would open the North hand one spade, hoping that they could control the auction better after that start. Two clubs, however, would be the popular choice for most players. North-South did well in the auction, arriving at the only slam that had a chance. How would you play it after the opening club lead went to the king and ace, and the jack of clubs came back?
At the table, declarer shed a low diamond from his hand and won with dummy’s queen. The ace of spades was followed by a spade ruff, and dummy was re-entered with the ace of hearts for another spade ruff. On this unlucky lie of the cards, that line of play promoted a trump winner for West and South went down one. Can you do better?
Of course you can! Discard a spade on the queen of clubs at trick two. Ruff a spade, cross back to dummy with the ace of hearts, and ruff another spade. Draw the trumps and claim. What’s the problem?
Many a makeable contract goes down after a careless play by declarer at trick one. Sometimes the play to trick one is routine and the critical decision comes at trick two.
