DECLARER’S MIRRORS WERE DECIDEDLY DUSTY
There are certain plays a defender can make that appear crazy. However, they work because the declarer, who cannot see all of the cards, will never believe the defender would be so irrational.
One species was immortalized by Frederick Turner in his article, “The Grosvenor Gambit,” in the June 1973 issue of The Bridge World magazine. For example, suppose the declarer is in seven spades. You hold a pleasing Q-J-x of spades. Dummy, on your left, has the K-10-x of spades. Declarer wins your opening lead in his hand and plays a low trump. You table your low trump; you don’t split your honors! Will declarer finesse dummy’s 10? Of course not. Afterward, though, he will spend several deals recovering from the shock. How could you have given him a chance to land an “impossible” grand slam?
Another possibility is in today’s deal. South opened with a questionable two clubs. North’s two no-trump showed a balanced 8 points or more. Then, when North raised to four spades and did not control-bid a side-suit ace, South should have passed.
West led off with his two top diamonds, South ruffing the second. Declarer took the next three tricks with the spade ace, the heart king and the heart ace. Then he ruffed the heart eight with dummy’s spade nine. East discarded a club!
Convinced that West had the spade queen, declarer confidently led the trump five to his king. He couldn’t believe his eyes when West discarded a heart.
The normal result had been obtained by abnormal means.
CLOSE TO HOME: By John McPherson