South, as declarer, plays a small card towards dummy's ace-queen and calls immediately for the queen, expecting West to play small. Unfortunately West produces the king. Did you know that in duplicate bridge declarer is not allowed to change dummy's card to the ace? It sounds a tough rule, but that's how the game is played. Once you have nominated (or touched) a card, you must play it.

In the above deal, South found himself as declarer in three no-trumps with the queen of spades led. Having taken the first trick with the ace of spades, it seemed a good idea to play a small diamond with the intention of finessing the queen, praying that West held the king (or if East had it he would be naive enough to play it on the first round) and declarer would be able to make the necessary five diamond tricks without being cut off from dummy. Any sensible East, holding the king, would, of course, duck the first round and wait for declarer to take a second finesse. Now declarer would have no more diamonds left and would therefore be unable to reach the remaining master diamonds, because dummy has no other entry cards. What declarer did not expect was for West, not East, to play the king on the first diamond lead. When I set this hand as a problem for last year's Abingdon and Wantage pre-season team trials, every declarer was sufficiently experienced in duplicate bridge not to call for the queen prematurely, but still failed to make his contract. After a brief look of surprise, each declarer called for the ace. It did not take long for each declarer to realise that he had blown the contract, because East was now able to take the fourth round of diamonds with the ten, killing off the dummy for good. All declarer needed to do was to play the two of diamonds under the king and leaving himself with a small diamond to cross to dummy to cash the rest of the suit later.

If I have a favourite Bridge Tip, it is to STOP AND THINK if the opponents suddenly produce a card that you were not expecting. You may save yourself a lot of points.
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