Bridge Tip 3

East is dealer and makes the pre-emptive bid of 3 diamonds. South becomes declarer in 4 Spades. West leads 8 of Diamonds.

As a dutiful partner West leads the top of the doubleton in his partner's bid suit. East wins with the King of diamonds and cashes his Ace then switches to a club. If declarer has listened to the bidding he will reckon that East started with seven diamonds and therefore has room only for six cards in the other three suits. Declarer should expect that spades may be longer in the West hand than the East. Rather than make the usual play of the King of spades on the first round of trumps, declarer should cash the Ace and note the fall of the 9 of spades. Then declarer should play a small spade from hand towards dummy, intending to play the 8 of spades if no honour appears from West. If West plays an honour, declarer wins with the King of spades and leads the 8 of spades to give West the trick he must make.