Contract Bridge

No bidding accompanies this hand because the deal itself is a fictional one in which the final contract of seven notrump -- a terrible contract if ever there was one -- would never be reached in actual practice.

The hand is given to demonstrate one of the rarest plays in bridge. In order to preserve whatever chance there is to make all 13 tricks, declarer wins the first trick with the ace of hearts. The next question is how to make all the tricks when there are only 11 in view. What’s more, there does not even appear to be the semblance of a 12th trick, let alone a 13th.

Nevertheless, all the tricks can be made, and it is not even a difficult proposition. All that needs to be done is to start playing, and 13 tricks fall right into your lap.

You start by cashing all five diamond tricks. You can safely discard a heart and a club from dummy, but if you put yourself in West’s shoes, you will find yourself faced with a situation that even the biggest aspirin in the world can’t cure.

West can discard two hearts on the third and fourth diamonds, but what can he discard on the fifth diamond? He will have to let go of a spade, a heart or a club, and as soon as he parts with any one of them, you automatically gain your 12th trick.

Not only that, but whichever suit he unguards subjects him to another squeeze when you cash the trick he just established for you, compelling him to unguard one of his two remaining suits. As soon as he does that, you acquire trick No. 13.

This could go on forever if there were more suits in the deck for West to guard, but there’s no need to be sadistic. Poor West has already suffered enough.

Tomorrow: It’s a delicate operation.