In many deals, one defender poses more of a threat to declarer than the other does. Whenever possible, therefore, declarer should shape his play so that the danger hand is avoided.

An unusual illustration of the kind of effort sometimes needed to achieve this objective occurred in today’s deal from a team contest.

At both tables, the final contract was four hearts, and both Wests led the queen of spades. The first declarer took the spade with the ace, drew trump in two rounds, then led the queen of diamonds and finessed. East won with the king and shifted to the jack of clubs, and the defenders collected three club tricks for down one.

At the second table, declarer saw what could happen to him if East had the diamond king and West the club ace, so he took steps to prevent East from ever gaining the lead. After winning the spade lead, he cashed the A-Q of hearts and king of spades, led a diamond to the ace, then played the ten of spades and discarded the queen of diamonds on it!

West won and was stymied. A spade return would allow South to ruff in dummy while discarding a club from his hand, and a club return would hand declarer a trick with the king. Similarly, a diamond return would establish a trick in that suit after South ruffed East’s king.

In practice, West returned a diamond, and declarer eventually lost only two clubs to make his contract.

South’s well-conceived line of play was guaranteed to work no matter where the ace of clubs and king of diamonds were actually located. He found a way to establish his 10th trick without ever running the risk of losing the lead to East.

Tomorrow: Teamwork on defense.