Contract Bridge

Assume you’re in six spades and West leads his singleton heart. You win East’s nine with the ace and cash the A-K of trump, hoping to find the suit divided 2-2. In that case, you could concede a heart and easily make the rest of the tricks.

But when East shows out on the second trump lead, you have to abandon this method of play because you would automatically go down one after East took the heart at trick four and returned a heart, allowing West to score a trump trick.

One way of trying to salvage the contract would be to lead the queen of clubs at trick four, hoping West had the king and would be kind enough to take it. This would create a club entry to dummy’s beautiful diamonds. But when you consider that West will almost surely see through your scheme and duck the queen, you should dismiss that idea.

Another possibility is to lead a low club toward dummy instead of leading the queen. This would succeed if West also played low, but if he put up the king and returned a trump, you’d eventually find yourself down three.

By far the best possibility, though not easy to think of, is to lead the six of trump at trick four, purposely conceding a trick to West’s ten!

This unusual play — deliberately losing a trump trick that you don’t have to lose — has everything to recommend it. It is a perfect Greek gift, since it guarantees the slam. After taking the ten, West is forced to return a club or a diamond. Either way — and no matter who has the king of clubs — you are sure to score the rest of the tricks.