South showed good judgment when he opened his hand one spade rather than two clubs. A three-suited hand should almost never be opened with two clubs, regardless of strength, as it will be impossible to show all your suits. Much better to open at the one level and hope someone at the table finds a bid. Today’s deal is from a rubber bridge game, where the methods are normally quite simple. There was no sensible way to explore for a possible grand slam so South made the practical decision to settle for six. Even that contract, it turned out, required some care.
South ruffed the opening club lead and drew trumps in three rounds. The contract would be cold if the missing hearts split 3-3, so South cashed his top three hearts. No luck there, so he ruffed his last heart on the board and led a diamond to his jack, winning the trick.
At this point, many players would go down counting on a 3-2 split in diamonds. This declarer remembered that neither spades nor hearts had split evenly, so the diamonds might also be foul.
He continued with a low diamond, intending to play dummy’s queen if West followed suit. West showed out, however, so South simply played a low diamond from dummy. East won a cheap trick, but he was forced to yield a ruff-sluff or lead away from his king of diamonds. 12 tricks either way and a wellplayed hand!
