Bridge

"I suppose it's the new arithmetic," West remarked gloomily after this deal. "We had three winners and yet declarer came to 11 tricks without discarding any of his losers.".

After two passes, North opened One Heart and South responded Two Diamonds. West passed and, facing a passed partner, so did North. East considered reopening (which would not have been a success), but finally decided to let well alone.

West led the 10 of clubs against Two Diamonds and, looking at the full deal, you can see that South would appear to be due to lose two hearts and a trump. Now read on ...

Declarer won with CQ and at trick two led a heart to the jack and ace. With no clear plan in mind, East returned a club and South saw his chance. He won, and played off two top trumps to reveal a sure loser. He was all set on a cross-ruff now, but after the spade ace and a spade ruff, he took the wise precaution of cashing HK before West had a chance to discard his queen.

Now everything went smoothly: trumping two more spades in hand and the remaining clubs on the table, he came to a total of 11 tricks for an excellent score. And what was trick 13? Why, West's master trump and his partner's heart winner were telescoped into just a single trick.