Goren Bridge by Bob Jones

Playing in a duplicate pairs competition, the declarer would have to assume that every single pair in his direction would reach this slam. There are 33 combined high-card points including all four aces and kings. A 3-2 diamond split with the queen onside would yield an easy 13 tricks and no declarer could afford to give that chance up in a pairs game. He would cash the ace of diamonds and lead another diamond, disappointed to see West show out. There would still be a slim chance to make the contract — we’ll let interested readers figure that out — but it would fail on this lie of the cards. The best declarer could do would be down one.

At rubber bridge, however, declarer would realise that he only needed four diamond tricks to make his contract. An overtrick would be irrelevant. A thoughtful declarer would start diamonds by leading a low diamond to dummy’s king, noting the nine from West. He would lead a low diamond from dummy and insert his eight when East played low. Should this lose to the 10 in the West hand, diamonds were splitting 3-2 all along and he could claim the rest. Had West followed to the first diamond with a low card, and not the nine, 10, or queen, South would have played his ace on the second round and relied on a 3-2 split. Easy game!