FUN TO BLUFF TO SAVE A LOSER

Tori Amos, a singersongwriter, said, “I’m not like a poker player. I'm not into bluff. My way is to look someone in the eye and tell them the way I'm intending to go. My cards are always on the table.”

At the bridge table, you occasionally have to bluff, keeping your cards close to your chest. How should South try to make six hearts in this deal after West leads the club nine?

When North raised hearts, South decided to keep his spade support up his sleeve, which worked to his advantage in the play. He jumped immediately into Blackwood.

If West had led the diamond ace, it would have killed the slam; but that was not obvious.

Declarer won the first trick with dummy’s club ace and dropped his queen under it. Then he took his two top trumps to learn that he had a loser there. How could he also avoid conceding a diamond?

In theory, South had to find East with three or four spades. But, as you can see, he had only a doubleton. Declarer spotted a ruse. He played a spade to dummy's queen, feigning the finesse, cashed the spade ace and continued with a third spade. To East, it looked as though South was about to ruff, so that he did not need to “waste” his trump trick. However, after East discarded, South produced the spade king from his back pocket, overtook the club 10 with dummy’s jack and pitched his diamond king on the spade seven.

East probably should not have fallen for declarer’s