Contract Bridge

There is nothing wrong with misleading your partner on defense if it serves a worthwhile purpose. When your only chance of stopping a contract is to lie to partner in order to steer him to the winning play, you must do so even though partner is deceived.

Take this deal where East has a crucial role to play. West leads the king of hearts, and -given the bidding and what he sees in dummy -- East should conclude that with routine defense, declarer will lose two heart tricks and nothing else. East can see that his king of diamonds is subject to capture if South is permitted to lead trumps twice from dummy.

To stop this from happening, East plays the seven of hearts on the king and the three of hearts on the ace, ostensibly indicating a doubleton. This intentional misrepresentation of his heart holding is designed to persuade West that East started with only two hearts.

West then obediently plays a third round of hearts, forcing dummy to ruff. East follows suit, of course -- to his partner’s surprise -- but the king of diamonds is now sure to score the setting trick, since declarer can no longer take two diamond finesses. Note that if East plays his hearts normally -- that is, up the line -- West might discontinue hearts and switch to another suit. If he does, South will have no trouble taking the rest of the tricks to make the contract. Tomorrow: Playing according to the odds.