BRIDGE

"I HAD to guess who held the ace of diamonds," remarked South after landing his unlikely game on this deal. We looked at him blankly - what did it matter who held it? - the contract was off in top tricks ...

South opened One Spade (!) and, as North, I lazily responded Three NT in the hope of terminating a protracted and painful rubber. No luck, for South went back to spades. West led the jack of hearts against Four Spades and the finesse lost to East's king. A heart came back, removing dummy's side entry, but now there were simply three more sure losers. Unless, perhaps, the defenders could be persuaded to duck a round of diamonds?

Just think - if South had come to hand with the ace of trumps and led his singleton diamond, West would have followed with his three, suggesting an odd number of cards. There would be little point in East ducking and, after taking his ace, he would simply have to play a club, no matter how unattractive it looked.

Instead South played in a bizarre fashion. At trick three he came to hand with the ace of trumps, crossed to dummy with the king (severing all possible connection with dummy's diamonds) and led a diamond. With no idea how many diamonds his partner held, East ducked! Now it was all over and there were just the two clubs to lose. Can you see declarer's odd point? If West had held the vital ace, it would have been right to lead diamonds from hand before West could get a count on the suit, but if East held it ...

NORTH-SOUTH GAME: dealer South

North

] K 2

_ A Q 5

+ K Q J 10

[ Q 8 7 6

West East

] J 9 ] 8 7

_ J 10 7 _ K 8 6 4 3

+ 9 6 5 4 3 + A 8 7

[ A 3 2 [ K 5 4

South

] A Q 10 6 5 4 3

_ 9 2

+ 2

[ J 10 9