BRIDGE NOTES: The art of preservation

Preservation is a virtue emphasised in all fields as it caters to saving for the future which can be otherwise bleak and hard to endure. Bridge also conforms to this all embracing concept of preservation which can at times be the key factor in the success or failure of a bridge contract. But it is only feasible if easily discerned. But at times the situation looks so grim that one fails to grasp the obvious and the common solution to an otherwise complex problem.
In the ultimate analysis it all depends on the degree of bridge awareness that a player possess and his table presence to work his way through the tangled web and reach that fulfilment, which comes in the making of the bridge contract. Not all bridge hands require far sighted super plays. Sometimes it is only the far sighted but simple play that makes the declarer's task easier in executing his bid contract. The solution is always there as the best possible one. Only the human eye sometimes fails to discover it in the heat of the battle. When the obvious dawns, some seconds later, it is too late.
Today's hand is a simple illustration of the above where the declarer has not much of a problem if he remembers the bridge virtue of preservation and knows his techniques well enough to apply them to his advantage.
Let us give you the north-south hand first along with the bidding:
The opening lead is a trump.
One look at the dummy reveals that the possible losers in the south hand can be all three hearts and if the diamond finesse is not on, another 2 losers in diamonds, which leaves very slim chances for the declarer to triumph in his contract of 4S. However, if one looks at the positive side, with 8 sure winners, and the possibility of the KH being favourably placed along with the queen of diamonds, the contract can still be makeable. But no good declarer can ignore yet another possibility and that is to establish club tricks. But how do you go about it? Do the club missing honours matter, if unfavourably placed? Or is that irrelevant? A closer analysis would reveal that it does not matter how the missing club honours are distributed for the declarer can easily establish 2 good club tricks in dummy if he concedes to the first 2 club tricks by letting the opponents win their top club honours of the ace and the king. Once yours establish 2 good clubs, your problems are over, for you can discard one of you diamond losers and one heart loser. You might be wondering what above the remaining heart loser and the queen of diamonds. Don't forget they stand already taken care of by discarding them on the clubs when you concede king and ace of clubs.
The solution looks simple enough now doesn't it except that you may be short of entries in dummy. Let us work it out card by card and see how we fare. The crucial point in play lies at this point. If east covers, you can't afford to let him win the trick for then a heart lead through your fragile heart holding will spell doom for you with all 3 tricks wrapped up if the ace of heart lies over the king of hearts. So in the first instance if east covers, you ruff and get back to dummy with Q of spades to repeat the clubs. If east does not have the other club honour, west is end played if he has no more spades. Thus the first mandatory condition for your contract to make is that trumps must break 2-1. A 3-0 trump holding will leave you with no resort.
So have you grasped all the possibilities well enough or is there a tiny snag left? Yes, you see you are an entry short in dummy to play your established good clubs unless you know the art of preservation by preserving the deuce of spades in your hand to create that vital third dummy entry with the 3 of spades. For that you need to play the sequential trumps either 7,8,9 or 10 of spades on the jack and queen of spades.

===================

North         South

===================

  QJ3      AK109872

  743           K52

  865           AQ3

QJ109             -

===================

=============================

The bidding:

=============================

West    North   East    South

=============================

-         -       -        4S

=============================

ALL PASS

=============================