Puzzles 7H32   Main

Magic Tricks

by Richard Pavlicek

In each diagram your goal is to win six of the seven tricks. Spades are trumps and South leads. Warning: The key plays are tricky!

win 6	A
	A Q
	5 4 3 2
	—
3		2
K J 10 9		3 2
K		6
2		K 9 8
	—
	—
	A Q J
South leads	A Q J 10

If North were on lead, this would be easy by drawing the opposing trumps. With South on lead, East-West may win both of their trumps separately. Can you stop this?

Solution

Cash the A and pitch the Q from North, then lead the J (or queen). As foolish as it might seem, you must let West win his blank king. West must give North the lead, and South jettisons his top diamonds on North’s aces to leave the North hand high.

The first one was easy compared to this:

win 6	A J 8 2
	K
	—
	A 3
K Q 9		10
—		A
A 8 7		J 10 9
2		Q 4
	3
	—
	K Q
South leads	K J 10 9

The object is to hold West to one trump trick, which is a formidable task. Are you up to it?

Solution

South leads the K, West covers and North must ruff with the eight. Lead the 3 to the jack (unless East plays the queen), then cash the Q to discard the club ace. Got all that? I’m sure that’s just how you would have played it at the table.

South continues with the K, and West does best to ruff high, then the K is pitched from North. On the diamond return, North ruffs low and South overruffs to effect a trump coup against West.

The last ending is the most bizarre of all:

win 6	Q 2
	—
	2
	A Q 9 8
—		K 10
—		K Q
A J 9 8		—
K J 10		4 3 2
	A J
	A 2
	K Q 10
South leads	—

The obvious start is to ruff a heart (high), but then what? Nothing seems to work.

Solution

Instead of ruffing the lowly heart two, South must ruff the ace with the Q. After drawing trumps with a finesse, pitching a club from dummy, South leads the 2 to East, which squeezes West in the process. If West discards a club, North discards the 2, and North’s A-Q-9 win the last three tricks. If West instead discards the A, North keeps the 2.

Puzzles 7H32   Main

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© 1994 Richard Pavlicek