BRIDGE with Bob Jones

Today’s deal is from a highstakes rubber bridge game at the famous TGR’s club in London. All the players were well-known experts.

West’s lead held the first trick and he shifted to the six of diamonds — low, queen, ace. Declarer drew trumps in two rounds ending in dummy. South was certain that West held the ace of clubs for his opening bid, so the normal play of a club to the king was doomed. He tried the effect of leading the queen of hearts from dummy and discarding the 10 of diamonds!

West won with his ace and took stock. Assuming declarer’s play was rational, the 10 of diamonds had to be his last diamond. It seemed right to play clubs at this point, so he cashed his ace. Partner’s eight was unreadable, so he continued with another club to South’s king. Declarer crossed to dummy with the eight of spades and discarded his remaining diamond on the jack of hearts. A lovely swindle!

East-West showed their class after the deal, when West announced his ace of clubs play as an error.

If the 10 of diamonds was declarer’s only remaining diamond, that meant that South had three clubs. Partner’s singleton club had to be the king, in that case, for the defense to have a chance, and a low club from West would be the winning play — never the ace. East took his share of the blame for not dropping the queen of clubs under the ace. This would deny the king and force a shift back to diamonds by West.