Contract Bridge

It is usually poor policy to falsecard on defense because there is a much greater chance of fooling partner than declarer.

Top- notch defense is difficult enough under ordinary circumstances without adding to it the risk of deceiving partner.

Nevertheless, there are times when a player should deliberately mislead partner in order to achieve the best result. Here is such a case.

South is in four spades, and West leads a club in response to East’s overcall. Declarer follows low from dummy, and East’s normally correct play is the jack. This is consistent with the rule that a defender should play the lowest of equal cards when winning or attempting to win a trick.

But in this deal, East should play the king of clubs instead of the jack. When South wins the king with the ace, West will naturally conclude that declarer started with the A- Q of that suit. But in this case, that is exactly the conclusion East wants West to reach. The reason is that if West should happen to gain the lead, East wants his partner to shift to a heart, so East deliberately misleads him.

At trick two, South crosses to dummy with a diamond, leads the nine of trump and lets it ride, losing to West’s king.

East’s falsecard at trick one now comes home to roost because West — under the impression that South started with the A- Q of clubs — does not lead another club. Instead, he shifts to a heart, through dummy’s K-J-2, and East thereupon takes two hearts and a club to put the contract down one.

Note that if East plays the club jack at trick one, West might decide to lead another club at trick four, thus handing South the contract. East’s intentional deception at trick one is designed to steer his partner in the right direction.