Bridge B Jay & Steve Becker

One of the things that makes bridge so appealing is that every once in a while, you can accomplish something that seems absolutely impossible. Consider this deal where it appears that declarer must go down one in five diamonds after a spade lead by West. If you study the matter more closely, however, it turns out that 11 tricks can be made with normal, but careful, play.

Declarer wins the spade lead and sees that he can't afford to tackle trumps right away, which would allow the defenders to score a spade trick in addition to their two trump tricks.

He therefore plays the Q-K-A of clubs, hoping the suit is divided 3-3, in which case he can discard dummy's remaining spade. But West ruffs the ace of clubs with the three of trump, forcing dummy to overruff. The spade loser is still there, but the effort to avert it is not yet over.

Declarer cashes dummy's ace of hearts, trumps a heart and ruffs another club in dummy, establishing his fifth club. He then trumps a heart (East cannot afford to ruff) and leads the nine of clubs.

If West were to ruff with the ace of trump, South would discard dummy's spade and easily make the contract. So let's say West does not ruff. In that case, South discards the spade from dummy as East ruffs with the seven. This is the first trick for the defense, and although the A-K of trump are still at large, the contract is now safely in the harbor.

East returns a spade, ruffed in dummy, and when declarer next plays a trump, the A-K come tumbling down. As a result, South makes the contract. By progressive steps he compels the defenders to expend their two small trumps, eliminating the spade loser in the process, and then, just like Humpty Dumpty, he creates a great fall.

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