Keep the road clear of a blockage

[Photo/China Daily]

Roberto Azevedo, a Brazilian diplomat and the current director-general of the World Trade Organization, said, "Each blockage is a blockage. Each impasse is an impasse. You have to find a solution; there is no recipe that fits each one of them."

Blockages can be dangerous in bridge. If it is, say, declarer's singleton ace opposite dummy's king-queen-jack, usually declarer should cash his ace as quickly as possible, then work out how to reach the dummy to cash those winners.

Other blockages are less easy to anticipate. In this deal, how should South play in three no-trump after West leads the spade king?

Declarer seems to have nine tricks: one spade, one heart, two diamonds and five clubs. In clubs, the textbooks say that a 3-2 split happens 67.8 percent of the time. What can possibly go wrong?

The original declarer took the third trick with his spade ace, cashed his club ace and led his club three to dummy's king. When East discarded a diamond, South crossed to his hand with a diamond and led the club nine, but when West did not cover with his jack, the suit was irreparably blocked.

It is true that East might have played the club 10 from, say, J-10-x. But it could not have cost South to lead his club nine on the second round to dummy's king. Then, when East discarded, South could have returned to his hand, led the club three to dummy's eight and made the contract.

When declarer is playing a spot card from his hand, it is often better to play the second-lowest rather than the lowest. Occasionally, that will even unblock a suit.