Contract Bridge

Zia Magic

Today's deal was reported by Roger Allen, a high school math teacher from Toronto. Allen had kibitzed Zia Mahmood at a match in the 1998 Vanderbilt Teams and felt it was his journalistic duty to make sure that what he saw reached “the light of day in the bridge press.”

Zia is particularly noted for his ability to create a subterfuge that diverts an opponent from the winning line of play. Such was the case in this deal.

Zia was East and remarkably remained silent during the auction, which ended with South in five diamonds. West led the club king, taken by declarer with the ace.

South then led a heart to dummy's ten and Zia's ace. At this point most mortals would return their remaining club to partner's ten, after which declarer would make the contract by eventually ruffing one of his good hearts in dummy in order to take the winning diamond finesse.

But Zia foresaw this scenario and devised a plan to deflect declarer from the winning path. At trick three, instead of returning a club, he shifted to a low spade!

The spade return convinced declarer that Zia had started with only one club, in which case the contract might be made without risking a diamond finesse. If Zia started with one club, there was an excellent chance he had four hearts, which in turn meant dummy's remaining clubs could be discarded on high hearts.

So, after ruffing the spade, South cashed the ace of diamonds and then played three more hearts, discarding dummy's clubs. But Zia ruffed the fourth heart with the nine and cashed the king to set the contract.

Declarer's line of play would have succeeded had either opponent started with the singleton king of diamonds, the K-x of diamonds and three hearts, or the K-x-x of diamonds and four hearts. Whether he should have chosen this approach is open to question, but one thing is certain: If Zia hadn't given him a little bit of rope by returning a spade at trick three, declarer would never have hanged himself.