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Bridge
By Philip Adler
Carlos Castaneda, a Peruvian-American author with a doctorate in anthropology who died in 1998, said, "The trick is in what one emphasizes. We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves happy. The amount of work is the same."
For a bridge player, trick one is what often emphasizes whether he ends the deal miserable or happy. The amount of work is not the same, though, because the more effort put in before playing from the dummy at trick one, the more contracts that will be made.
This week, let's look at some deals in which declarer's play at trick one is either critical or lays the foundation for success. In today's layout, what should South do after West leads a low spade against three no-trump?
South starts with eight top tricks: one spade (given the opening lead), three hearts, two diamonds and two clubs. The ninth winner can definitely come from clubs. But what is the risk?
If the club finesse loses, maybe the defenders can run the spade suit.
To stop that, declarer must follow the "honor from the shorter side first" dictum. Since there are only two spades on the board, South must put up dummy's king. Here, he wins the trick and can run the club jack to guarantee his contract. Even though that finesse loses, declarer's remaining queen-low in spades is a stopper with West on lead.
Note, though, that if South takes the first trick with his spade queen, when West gets in with his club queen, he cashes the spade ace to squash dummy's king, then takes three more spade tricks to defeat the contract.