[Trumpace]

Recently, I came across an interesting deceptive play involving both defenders in the trump suit.

South was in 4H after 1H - 3H - 4H (E/W passing).

Scoring: Rubber

Lead ♦7.

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West led the ♦7. East took the AQ and gave West a ruff in D (ruffed with the ♥3). West now returned a spade to K.

South now played a heart from dummy and East played the J (!) from J8, South the K, and West dropped the Q from QT.

South ruffed a spade in dummy, and then finessed the ♥9 losing to the T for -1.

East has to play the J to bring about the deceptive play. If he plays the 8, declarer is forced to play for the drop.


Was this brilliant defense by E? or just lucky? or is this well known?

[Vilgan]

semi clever by east to give declarer a losing option. Declarer should take like 2 seconds and think about it though and then they will get it right.

For the finesse to be right, east must have played the J from JT8 which makes no sense.

[pclayton]

I suppose this is a cousin of:

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where South leads low and West 'splits' with QJx. It should never work but sometimes does against a weak or tired player.

I think the OP is also similar to and could help mask a (now) singleton King:

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[Free]

Why would anyone play the J from JTx? Declarer sucks (or was tired )

[MFA]

pclayton, on Aug 17 2008, 09:54 AM, said:

I suppose this is a cousin of:

AK9xxx Qx Jx Txx

where South leads low and West 'splits' with QJx. It should never work but sometimes does against a weak or tired player.

My mixed partner pulled that one succesfully against a quite strong international player (won't mention any names ).
Sometimes it helps being a blonde