North-South vulnerable.

A defender seldom paints a false picture of his hand to his partner because transmitting a false message to partner strikes at the very core of successful defense.

But there are hands where it doesn’t matter whether partner is fooled, because in the bigger picture the deception may end up fooling declarer.

Take this case where North-South reached six hearts on the bidding shown. Assume you’re East and partner leads the deuce of spades, on which declarer plays dummy’s eight. Your normal play would be the ten, forcing declarer’s ace.

After this start, declarer would surely make six hearts. He’d draw three rounds of trump, cash four clubs, discarding a spade from dummy, and take a diamond finesse. When it succeeded, he’d be home free. His only loser would be a spade.

Now let’s go back to trick one and play the king of spades instead of the ten! This play might make your partner unhappy, as he’ll think South has the A-Q-10, but his malaise will be short-lived.

After you play the king, declarer is almost certain to think your partner led from the Q-10-x-x. If he does, he is sure to go down. He will draw trump and eventually play a spade toward the J-9, expecting to establish the jack as a trick. He will be planning to discard dummy’s jack of diamonds later on a club and thereby avoid risking the diamond finesse. Needless to say, South will be more than a bit chagrined when you cash the Q-10 of spades to beat the slam.

By playing the king of spades at trick one, you offer declarer an alternative line of play that he is otherwise unlikely to choose. South is almost certain to avail himself of this offer and thus bring about his own. demise.

Tomorrow: >> Famous Hand.

Steve Becker