In many deals, declarer may find it more dangerous to have one opponent on lead than the other. In such cases, he should try to shape his play so as to keep the dangerous opponent out of the lead.

Consider this deal where West leads the king of spades against five clubs. If South proceeds without giving the matter much thought, he wins with the ace and either leads a heart right away or attempts to establish dummy’s diamonds. Either way, assuming best defense, he goes down at least one.

But a really careful declarer winds up making the contract by doing a most peculiar thing. He ducks the king of spades at trick one!

This unusual play places declarer in a much more comfortable position. West can do no better than lead another spade at trick two. Declarer discards a diamond on the ace, cashes the ace of diamonds and ruffs a diamond.

South then leads a low club to the eight and ruffs another diamond, establishing dummy’s three remaining diamonds. The missing trumps are then drawn, ending in dummy, and three hearts are discarded on the J-9-8 of diamonds. Declarer thus loses only a heart and a spade and so makes the contract.

The reason the spade duck at trick one is so effective is that it allows declarer to establish dummy’s diamonds without East ever gaining the lead for a killing heart return.

It costs declarer virtually nothing to duck the first spade, because in so doing he merely substitutes a spade loser for an otherwise inevitable diamond loser. But the duck permits declarer to retain control over which opponent gains the lead, and it is therefore the correct play.

Tomorrow: First things first.