BRIDGE

South dealer.

Neither side vulnerable.

Let's say you hold the South hand and open three notrump, passed all around. West leads the queen of hearts.

How would you play the hand?

When the deal occurred, South won the heart with the king and quickly realized that if he played the king of diamonds at trick two, he would almost surely go down one after a second heart lead, which would leave him with only eight tricks.

So South began to think about how he might possibly steal a ninth trick, and after a few moments, he came up with a scheme that actually had a reasonable chance of success. At trick two, he led the king of spades!

Now just imagine you're West, and the only cards you can see are the dummy's and your own.

It would certainly seem logical to assume that declarer has the K-Q-x of spades and is trying to get you to take the ace. If that were the case, you would probably duck the king of spades at trick two -- which is exactly what happened when the deal was played.

South then led the king of diamonds at trick three, and at the end of play West discovered he'd been had.

If you were the actual West, you might feel embarrassed about having fallen victim to such a ruse - even though you'd probably have lots of company with other Wests. Instead of chastising yourself, however, you'd be better advised to credit declarer with making a very fine play and let it go at that.