[pen_chef]

I am advanced! Maybe more in humour than in bridge… Here is a game that’d make you laugh rather than enjoy some exquisite play. Now stop a while and think over our side’s hands, four hearts at stake, mine about to break. Do you reckon +1 is possible, minding that RHO holds AQ of diamonds to take the opening lead, after overcalling in the suit? I mean plus, not minus! Is one down the only way you see it? Lemme tell you the moves.
The lead is a small diamond (not literally, there were real brilliants still to come), and I try to better my chances with the J. Alas! Q from behind, followed by A. And here comes a third diamond, I discard a spade, LHO follows. Thank you very much, game cold! But for an extra trick not enough, please do something more! Now I, pointedly, lead Q of clubs from dummy. RHO, unreasonably, covers it with K. So what! I still need a jack in the box. A of hearts now, and … Oh, magic! It pops up from left!!! Here I stop for a minute. For nothing else but to fold up with laughter…
I can’t go on, sorry! Bridge is not dead a game, it still can smell funny sometimes! Enjoy!

Scoring: IMP

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[kenrexford]

One of my favorite impossible plays went something like this.

In a trump contract, I was on dummy with KJ109xxx in clubs (a side suit), a void in clubs in hand, and only one more entry back to dumy.

I could just play small and hope to drop a stiff Ace. Or, I could play the King, hoping to find stiff Queen to my left and a cover by right, establishing the entire suit. Neither seemed all that likely. Whereas just ruffing out the Ace was twice as likely to win a trick, the King would yield two more tricks rather than one. So, a 0.00002 chance of one more trick, or a 0.00001 chance of two more tricks. Seemed even odds, roughly. Of course, RHO with A9xxx might wisely duck and give me a problem. So, the odds favored, IMO, the practical ruff-out of the Ace.

However, no psychology kicks in. It seemed that I might have an extra chance if I was tricky and selected precisely the Jack. Then, RHO might think I am trying to sneak the stiff Queen into my bag and hop Ace from Ax(x)(x)(x) anyway. So, I was inclined to lead precisely the Jack.

Still, there was one more layer left. "Weird begets weird." The theory is that bridge players do reciprocally weird things if you do weird things first. The "weird" play is neither the King nor the Jack, nor small. Weird is the 10. So, as the 10 seemed most likely to (1.) work if the Ace is stiff, (2.) induce RHO to hop the ACe for fear of the sneak-the-Queen move, and (3.) induce a "weird begets weird" play, I opted 10 at the table.

RHO, with AQx, thought for a second and then flew Ace.

[mtvesuvius]

My favorite impossible suit story is told my one of my partners (Who is almost Bald, and in his 70s)... He tells my that he once played a 6♠ contract (at MPs) against 2 men in a local regional, off the AK and a small spade. He got a diamond lead, won in hand and led the Q♠ from his hand, LHO thought for a second, and played the King... and RHO disgustedly threw down the Ace. Now for the postmortem:

RHO: Why the hell would you ever play the king there? It's an obvious duck.
LHO: I was afraid declarer had the Ace also, then he makes 7.
RHO: So? Why would he lead the queen then?
LHO: You know, I once saw Eric Rodwell make a play like that.
RHO: Does he look like Rodwell?

[ArtK78]

How about this one?

I was not present, but I heard about it.

NS bid to a grand slam in a suit. LHO makes a lead in a side suit. Declarer has AQxxxx in dummy opposite his JTxxx in the side suit.

Would you believe that declarer finessed at trick one?

[ArtK78]

Here is one that I did see in person.

I was kibbitzing a match in a local round-robin some years ago. Friends of mine, both experts, somehow managed to arrive in a 3NT contract with a singleton small spade in dummy opposite a singleton ♠K in declarer's hand.

LHO led a small spade and, after some thought, RHO played the Q. Declarer took the K and rattled off more than enough tricks to make 3NT.

RHO's spade holding was AQx.

[skjaeran]

This one happened in a district pairs championship in my youth.

We played a married couple. After launching Blackwood, the husband for some odd reason decided to declare 5♥. After winning my partners lead in hand he advanced the trump queen. My partner showed out, but he still finessed, losing to my king. After winning my side suit return in hand, he lead another trump to dummy's ace. Then my partner rose up from the table, saying "n n n n no trumps partner???" (They just made 6 after losing to my singleton king.)

Another good story is from the childhood of RKCBW. A pair known locally as KGB (another husband and wife combination) was playing together. The wife's RHO after a keycard ask bid 7NT. She huddled for a while, whether or not to double this, holding an ace. But in the end decided to pass. LHO passed and her husband made a pretty quick double. The 7NT bidder was angry, and asked "how on earth can YOU double this?". Whereupon the opening leader just snorted and banged down two aces.