Bridge

Old rabbit-in-the hat trick

Opening lead — queen of spades.

Appearances can be very deceiving. This is just as true in bridge as it is in everyday life.

Take this case where, because of an unlucky 4-0 trump division, South seems doomed to go down one in four spades, losing two trumps, a heart and a diamond. Yet when the play ended, declarer had 10 tricks, the opponents only three, and, what’s more, there was absolutely nothing the defenders could have done about it.

When dummy came down, the play seemed routine. The obvious losers were a diamond, a heart and perhaps a trump. But when declarer took the opening spade lead with the king and East showed out, what had looked like an easy contract took on a decidedly different hue.

Undaunted, declarer proceeded to demonstrate that everything is not always as it appears to be. He started by playing the ace and another diamond, losing to the queen. West returned a second trump to the ace, whereupon South led a club to the ace and ruffed a club.

A diamond was ruffed in dummy, followed by a second club ruff. Declarer then cashed the K-A of hearts and trumped dummy’s last club.

By this time, 11 tricks had been played, and South had won 10 of them. The last two tricks were taken by West’s two spade winners, one of which obliterated his partner’s heart trick. The four “sure” losers were thus telescoped into just three.

Declarer’s 10 tricks came from scoring three ruffs in his hand and another in dummy to go with the A-K of trumps and four top winners in the side suits. Apparent defeat was converted into victory by getting maximum mileage out of the trump suit.