On the spot as soon as possible

Grace Speare, a psychic and New Age author, wrote, “Welcome every problem as an opportunity. Each moment is the great challenge, the best thing that ever happened to you.”

That is perfect for a bridge player. At the table, one should treat almost every trick as a challenge.

In today's deal, look at only the West and North hands. Against four spades, West leads the heart ace: six, eight, nine. How should he plan the defense?

Sitting West was Charles McMahon, playing in a pairs tournament in Sydney, Australia. The deal was originally reported by Ron Klinger.

McMahon counted up the highcard points, which all experts do on every deal. Dummy had 14, and he held 12. That left 14 for East and South combined, but since South had bid at the twolevel, East rated to have only one useful honor card, not two. West could also see that the club suit was lying favorably for declarer.

First, though, what was the heart position? East's card had to be either a singleton or the start of a signal with a doubleton. So, West cashed the heart king; everyone followed. Now West shifted to the club jack!

South thought this was a singleton, or perhaps high-low from a doubleton. Also, if East had the club king, clearly West had the spade king. Everything seemed easy. Declarer won with dummy's club ace, played a diamond to his ace and ran the spade jack. Imagine his surprise when East won with the king and returned a club to West's king for down one.

If you cannot win by normal means, try to challenge an opponent to find the winning line.