THE TOUGHEST JOB AT BRIDGE TABLES

What’s the easiest job in the world? One answer at the end.

What’s the toughest job at the bridge table? Right — being a defender. It is tough as you are unable to see all of your side’s assets. But players do find good defenses — as in today’s deal.

West led the heart two. Treating this card as an honest fourth-highest, South took East’s jack with his king and immediately ran the spade jack.

After winning with the king, many Easts would return the heart eight, saying afterward that they had to lead back their partner’s suit. But this lets the contract make. Declarer wins with dummy’s ace and drives out the diamond ace. The defense collects one spade, two hearts and one diamond, but South gets the rest.

However, one East found the best defense: At trick three, he switched to the club six.

If South had guessed the position, he would have won with his ace, blocking the club suit. Instead, he not unnaturally played low. Now, though, after West won with the club queen, he returned the heart queen. South ducked but had to win the next heart trick. West took trick six with his diamond ace and cashed his last heart to defeat the contract.

Dennis Miller claimed that being a coroner is the easiest job in the world. He asked, “What’s the worst that can happen? You realize that the corpse still has a pulse!”

It’s similar at the bridge table, where the easiest job is being the dummy. In French, the dummy is called “le mort” — the dead — but most dummies have a pulse.