Bridge

Although not at the table, I have a proprietary interest in this deal from the Generali European Championships in June in as much as I spotted the winning line of play which was not found at many, if any, of the 39 tables in play.

When I watched on Bridgerama, East opened 1# after two passes and South overcalled with 4!. West tried 44, which proved a disaster on a grand scale. But just suppose that 4! had been passed out and that West had made the apparently killing lead of 2J.

After winning with 2K, you must take the slight risk of 5-0 trumps (unlikely after your opponents' relative silence) and, overtaking !J, draw trumps in four rounds throwing diamonds from the table. Then the key play: you exit with a diamond, cutting the opponents' communications in a remarkably neat way.

If West wins and switches to a spade, you finesse and later a club goes away on a spade; if West leads a second club, you cover in dummy and now, with East unable to attack spades, the 13th club provides a spade discard. Assuming that West holds 210, this play is 100 per cent.

Perhaps seeing all four hands helped.