BRIDGE

Let’s say you get to four hearts on the bidding shown and West leads a trump. It’s certainly not hard to figure out where the missing honour cards are. You’re looking at 26 high-card points, so there’s a good chance that West, for his takeout double, has all the missing points. It might therefore seem that you must lose two spades, a diamond and a club and go down one. However, if you give the situation further thought, a ray of hope emerges. You can probably endplay West if the cards are divided the way you think they are. So you win the trump lead with the nine, play the jack of trumps to the queen, lead the queen of clubs and finesse. As expected, West takes his king and returns a club. You win with the 10 and overtake the jack with the ace as both defenders follow suit.

You now have West over a barrel. You carefully refrain from cashing the nine of clubs and instead lead the three of diamonds. West follows low -- he would hand you the contract if he played the ace – and dummy’s queen wins the trick. You then return to your hand with a trump, cash the club nine, discarding a diamond from dummy, and exit with the king of diamonds.

West wins with the ace, but is a dead pigeon. If he returns a diamond, you ruff in dummy and discard the jack of spades, while if he returns a spade, he likewise presents you with your 10th trick.

The deal illustrates that if you know where the opponents’ high cards are, you can sometimes convert a losing cause into a winning one.