BRIDGE

The perfect recipe

There are contracts that might seem impossible to make, but that can nevertheless be made with the right mixture of luck and skill. Let’s say you’re in six hearts and West leads a club. Certainly your prospects are poor, but they’re not absolutely hopeless. So you win the club with the ace and cash the A-K of spades as both opponents follow suit.

For deceptive purposes, you now lead the jack of spades, hoping that if West started with only two spades, he will discard a diamond or a club on the assumption that his partner holds the queen of spades. But this hope does not materialise when West follows with the ten of spades.

You can’t afford to discard dummy’s club on this trick, since East is very likely to ruff with a small trump, so you ruff the jack of spades with the jack of hearts. When East discards on this trick, a very favourable development, you lead dummy’s king of diamonds, covered by East with the ace.

There is now the sweet smell of success in the air. You ruff and continue with the queen of spades, and poor West can do nothing to stop the slam. When he discards a club, you ruff the spade with the king of hearts, discard your club loser on the queen of diamonds and lead a trump.

West wins with the ace, but that is the only trick you lose, and the “impossible” slam comes rolling home.