There’s a Little Bad in the Best of Us

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Chicago TribuneChicago tribune 18 de Febrero 1983 por Charles Goren y Omar Sharif

We all have a sneaky admiration for the artist at the bridge table who can convince another that the tricks he is looking at are a mirage. A galaxy of deceptive plays has been collected by Scottish author Hugh Kelsey in the paperback, «The Tricky Game». Many hands and situations will be familiar to readers of this column, but this book will provide hours of pleasant reading and could help you to be less obvious In your play of the cards.JW

This example features two of the great pairs of yesteryear. Sitting North-South were Eric Jannersten and Jan Wohlin of Sweden, while East-West were Boris Schapiro and Terence Reese of England.

The contract was normal, and Reese made his natural lead of the queen of hearts. The unthinking play by declarer at trick two is to start on diamonds. But watch what would happen. East would win and continue with a heart, and declarer would be able to take only eight tricks before he had to start on clubs.

West would then make the rest of the tricks with the ace of clubs and three hearts. Wohlin saw that he would get no more than eight tricks if he went after diamonds; so at trick two he boldly led the king of clubs!

West had no idea that it was his partner who held the queen — he was afraid that, by winning the ace of clubs, he would set up dummy’s suit; so he held up. With a club trick in the bag, declarer quickly shifted to the king of diamonds. Now he could run nine tricks before the defenders could get the hearts going.