Never give up

Whenever I start to feel like I'm picking up some skills at the bridge table, I come across a bridge story that makes me realize I'll never master the game. The hand below was played by Oscar Irawan, age 17. He made what looks like an unmakeable contract. How would you approach it? (Hint: from the double, the declarer correctly inferred that East held all four outstanding trumps.)

North	East	South	West
Pass	Pass	2	4
4	Pass	5	5
5	Pass	6	Pass
Pass	Dbl	Pass	Pass
Pass

Lead:  K

North

 6 4 3

 - -

 10 9 8 5 4 2

 10 9 6 3

South

 A K J 9 5 2

 - -

 A K

 A J 7 5 2

- - - - - - - - -

SOLUTION:

Well, nobody seems to want to take a stab, so here's the answer. Irawan used an invaluable principle: when you can visualize only one possible way the opposing cards could lie that would enable you to win, assume that the cards do in fact lie that way, and play for the best chance.

West's 4H overcall showed some length in hearts, but the only way the contract could be made was if West in fact had nine hearts, leaving him with four cards in the minor suits. Moreover, those four cards would have to be divided 2-2, AND they'd have to be the highest outstanding cards in their suits. Playing for this slim possibility, Irawan trumped the heart lead in the dummy and undertrumped it in his hand. He led a trump from dummy and finessed in his hand -- East played the 7 and South the 9, West discarding a heart. Then declarer cashed the A and K of diamonds, on which West played the J and Q; and then A of clubs, on which West played the Q; and finally exited with the 2 of clubs.

The distribution was exactly right. West won with the K of clubs but now he had nothing left in his hand but hearts. He led a heart, which was trumped in dummy and again undertrumped in declarer's hand. Now declarer just had to keep playing winning diamonds from dummy, discarding clubs from his hand, until East trumped, at which point declarer would overtrump and win the rest of the tricks.

If declarer hadn't undertrumped on those two heart tricks, discarding clubs instead, he would have been forced to trump one of dummy's diamonds (since he'd have no clubs left to discard on them), which would leave East with a winning trump. The play shows a dazzlingly impressive combination of foresight, imagination, and luck. This was the full deal:

North

 6 4 3

 - -

 10 9 8 5 4 2

 10 9 6 3

West

 - -

 K Q 10 9 8 6 4 3 2

 Q J

 K Q

East

 Q 10 8 7

 A J 7 5

 7 6 5 3

 8 4

South

 A K J 9 5 2

 - -

 A K

 A J 7 5 2