Bridge
1 July, 2026
Why did declarer play the way he did?
A cunning declarer can sometimes catch an unwary defender.
A cunning declarer can sometimes catch an unwary defender. On this board, your right-hand opponent opens 1NT as dealer. Left-hand opponent bids 2❤️ as a transfer and then raises opener's rebid of 2♠️ to game. So here you are, defending against a contract of 4♠️. You have a fairly easy choice of opening lead, namely ♦️Q. This is what you see:
Declarer wins ♦️A and leads ♠️3 towards dummy. Will you take your king?
You mustn't! Declarer clearly does not have the ace – with ♠️Ax or ♠️Axx he would surely cross to dummy, either with a diamond ruff or with ❤️A, to lead ♠️Q. Therefore partner has the ace and the risk is that it might be a singleton.
In fact it is, so if you play the king you have compressed two of your defensive tricks into one. This was the full deal:
That's a trap to watch out for … but the inference is absolutely clear because declarer has at least 2 spades and might have 3. At several tables, South made an undeserved overtrick.
Would you bid the North hand in the same way as described above? Opposite a 1NT opening, there is another popular approach to bidding hands with some 6-9 high card points and a 6+ major suit, which is a 4-level transfer. Those who play so-called Texas transfers respond 4♦️ to transfer to 4❤️, bidding 4❤️ to transfer to 4♠️. This has the virtue of being directly comparable to the 2-level Jacoby transfers which everyone routinely plays – provided partner doesn't forget and pass a 4❤️ bid! An alternative approach is to respond 4♣️ to transfer to 4❤️, bidding 4♦️ to transfer to 4♠️. Both methods have merit.
Next time you see declarer make an unexpected play in the trump suit, ask yourself: why did he do that?
Rakesh Kumar
The Southern Highlands Bridge Club runs three duplicate sessions every week (Mon 1:00 pm, Wed 6:30 pm, Sat 1:00 pm) at the East Bowral Community Centre. Highlands players and visitors welcome!
For more information: https://shbc.bridgeaustralia.org
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