The dark side of the picture

One of the secrets of good dummy play is not to take the easy hands for granted. When you are declarer in what seems to be a safe contract, you should always stop and ask yourself: "Is there anything that might jeopardize the contract, and, if so, what can I do about it?"

This type of thinking often makes the difference between success and failure. A "worrier" in bridge has a huge advantage over a player who assumes everything will be divided normally. All too often, the nonworrier neglects to protect against the unexpected.

Take this case where South is in six hearts and West leads a spade. Declarer ruffs in dummy and sees 13 easy tricks consisting of five hearts, six diamonds, the spade ruff and a club.

So he starts to draw trumps by playing the A-K and discovers, to his horror, that he can no longer make the slam because the hearts are divided 4-1. The best he can do now is settle for down one.

But if South is a worrier, this does not occur. He notes at trick one that a 4-1 trump split poses a threat to the contract, and starts to search for a means of overcoming that division if it exists.

This does not prove to be a difficult task. After ruffing the spade, he leads a trump from dummy and allows East's nine to hold the trick! This safety measure proves to be effective against any return, and South scores 12 easy tricks.

Sometimes it pays to worry.