Bridge - The Scotsman 18/05/2012

EVERY community has its hustlers, and the bridge community is no exception. Imagine you were declarer in 7H on this deal. You can see 12 tricks with a heart ruff in dummy. The thirteenth may come from the diamond finesse, but there is no rush to take it. You win the spade lead and draw trump in two rounds, West discarding a club. You play king of spades and ruff your third spade, noting that West follows, so East’s weak two was a five-card suit. You return to the ace of clubs and run the rest of your trump, watching the discards with care. West throws two clubs and four diamonds, and since the king of clubs has not appeared you discard the queen of clubs, reducing dummy to DAQ. There are only two diamonds out, and presumably they are 1-1 – with a void diamond East would surely make a Lightner double for an unusual lead. So you drop the singleton king of diamonds offside to make your slam. If you bid them up you have to play them well.

Now suppose East does make a Lightner double of your Grand Slam. West leads the two of diamonds (suit preference for clubs). If you play the ace of diamonds and it is ruffed you will be two down, so you try the queen. Your jaw drops as East wins his singleton king.

The Hustler was George Jacobs of the USA, enhancing his reputation as a frisky and imaginative bidder.