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Bridge
By Philip Adler
Nancy Mitford, an English novelist who was perhaps best known for her essay about U and non-U English (upper class and non-upper class), said, "Surely a king who loves pleasure is less dangerous than one who loves glory."
At the bridge table, a king who takes a trick is more pleasurable than one who proves powerless. Worse, though, is a king who does not take a trick when it should have done.
In this deal, East has to make the key plays. Defending against four hearts, how should East plan the defense after West leads the club queen?
South's two-heart rebid guaranteed at least a six-card suit and promised 12-14 high-card points.
One of the keys of good defensive play is that if you lead a low card from length, you are promising at least one honor in that suit and expressing an interest in trying to win tricks in that suit. And this applies right through the deal, not just at trick one.
Sometimes, though, your low card is not so low. Then you need to hope that partner is alive to the possibility.
East takes the first trick with his club ace; ducking cannot be right, because declarer might have a singleton king. Then, though, returning a club probably will not help. Dummy's spades are threatening to provide declarer with discards. Instead, East should shift to the diamond eight. If partner does not have the ace, this play will at worst concede an unnecessary overtrick.
Here, though, West should win the trick and return the diamond two, lowest from three remaining cards. This gives the defenders the first four tricks for down one.