BRIDGE
Elementary
Andrew Robson
AFTER every trick each player holds the same number of cards. If declarer has only two cards left, then an opponent also holds only two cards. If one of them is known, then he has only one other card. If that other card is played then there is no room for a hidden card. This may sound trivial but it has huge ramifications.
Dealer South North-South 45 4 3 V 10 8 • Q 9 • J 109 8 6 4
4
South West
24 pass 54 pass pass pass J 9 7 VK J 6 • K 7 6 +A vulnerable
2 4 2 4 — V Q 9 7 5 3 • 10 5 3 2 + K 5 3 2 10 8 6 4 East pass pass
North
N W E
S
A K Q VA • A J 8 • Q 7 4NT 74 West led 4,J and declarer won dummy's +A. He crossed to VA, trumped +0, trumped V4 with 4A, cashed 4K, 4Q and crossed to 4J, drawing West's three trumps. He then cashed VK, discarding • 4 from his hand — if both opponents had followed he would have been in a position to claim his contract by trumping the fourth round to establish dummy's fifth V. West discarded, but he trumped a fourth V anyway, and cashed his last trump discarding •6 from dummy.
Apparently needing the ♦ finesse for his 13th trick, declarer crossed to •K and led *7 at trick 12. East followed with ♦10 and he was just about to try •J when he stopped in his tracks. Can you see what had suddenly occurred to him?
He knew East's last card was •Q. Therefore it could not be •Q. There was no point in finessing •J. He rose with *A — the only chance being that West had the singleton •Q remaining (and if he had been counting accurately he would know this to be the case). West's •Q duly fell and declarer tabled •J — his 13th trick.
This type of ending is known as a 'show- up' (or 'pop-up' in America) squeeze. East had been forced to discard two •s earlier so his last ♦ had to 'pop up' at trick 12 whether or not it was •Q.
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