DAILY BRIDGE CLUB:

“It ain’t like football. You can’t make up no trick plays.” — the late Yogi Berra on baseball strategy

Bridge has nothing like the old hidden-ball trick, but it does have misdirection plays. In today’s deal from a team match, both Souths played at six spades.

At one table West led a club, and declarer won and saw he only had to worry about two trump losers. In case East had all three missing trumps, South played safe by leading the jack and letting it ride when East played the four. West showed out, and South congratulated himself and claimed 12 tricks.

At the second table, West’s opening lead was the 10 of hearts. South also spotted the best play in trumps, but when he took the ace of hearts, East followed with the queen!

Now South was afraid to adopt his safety play. If he let the jack ride, losing, West might give East a heart ruff. So South led a trump to his ace at Trick Two — and found himself misdirected. He lost two trump tricks and went down.

DAILY QUESTION: You hold: ♠ A76532 ♥ 63

◆ AK ♣ K Q 9. You open one spade, and your partner bids 1NT. What do you say?

ANSWER: You have a six-card suit and 16 highcard points, and a jump to three spades would show a hand of that type. But most experts would want better spades for a jump. Many experts would bid two clubs, pretending to have a four-card suit and giving partner room to make another descriptive bid.