The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1932-05-13
By =. v. Shepard
Is 4.Spades or 5-DiamOnds
Preferable?
The hand shown below was
dealt in a two-table duplicate
game. One pair played f.
Spades, and went down one
trick. At the other table S.
Diamonds was the contract
that went down one trick.
Which declaration was the bet
ter one?
AAKQ53
Ol094
&Qe4
HI05
q J42 -- AI0S
OJ7ss3 / OAKo2
AZ &KIoa653
1J73 z 90
A676
p Oe
&A2
,. HAK90642
By e. v. Shepard

At both tables bidding went:
z, diamonds; Y, 2-Spades; B,
3-Clubs; z, 3-Diamonds; Y, g.
Spades. At the first table z
jumped into 5-Diamonds, and
played that declaration. At
the second table rs bid of only
diamonds was overcalled by
US 4-Spades, and was played
at that declaration.
At Table the opening lead
was the j Of clubs. z won the
trick with his Ace. He took two
rounds Of diamonds; he found
that trumps did not break, so
he gave A his one diamond
trick; then z had to lose one
club trick and one heart trick.
z need not have given his
opponents three tricks. When
he found that A must be given
one trump trick, z could have
forced A to trump spades.
Dummy could win three spade
tricks before A could ruff that
suit. Upon the fourth lead Of
spades z could discard one los
ing heart or one losing club.
Had z done this all that ABB
could win would be one trump
trick and one side trick, insur-
ing fulfillment of the game
contract.
Table 2 played the hand in
correctly at spades. The open
ing lead was the K of hearts,
followed by the @, that dummy
trumped.
Anxious to trump off his last
remaining heart, Y led a spade
from dummy; Y won the trick
with his Q, and had dummy use
it's last spade to ruff a heart.
Y found himself frozen in
dummy. He led a small club
from dummy; A played his j; Y
lost his @ to BIS K. Dummy
was put in the lead, by B, who
led his @ of diamonds. Dunn
my's attempt to win a second
trick in diamonds failed, be-
cause B ruffed with his 10 Of
spades. B led back a low club,
and dummy won the trick. Y
trumped the lead of a small
diamond from dummy; then he
pulled the remaining spades,
but he had at last to give B a
club trick. Losing one heart,
one ruff of diamonds, and two
club tricks, defeated the con-
tract by one trick.
Y could have gone game in
several ways. First Of all, 1t
was correct to have dummy
trump the second lead Of
hearts, but it was quite unneces.
sary to have z ruff US last
heart. Having trumped the
second round of hearts, US
most simple plan was to draw
all opposing trumps. If dia-
monds broke, Y would make
small slam. When diamonds
were led, and B had to play the
@ on the first round, B could
be allowed to hold the trick. All
B could do would be to win one
heart trick before Y could claim
the balance. Y could lose at
most only one diamond trick and
two heart tricks, inSuring game.
Properly played, either spades
or diamonds would have yielded
game. AS it is usually easier to
make four-odd than five-odd, z
should have let his partner play
the hand at spades. z knew
that he could not score anything
for honors: Y might be able
to score honors. Game at
spades is worth 100 points.
Game at diamonds is worth only
100 points.
copyright. 1892. King Features
Syndicate, Incl