Fun!

Nothing is more fun than swindling several tricks. An unusual opening lead by partner allowed us to cooperate to take an amazing number of tricks. Declarer helped. Playing IMP pairs against an internationalist on my right and his client on my left, I hold in 4th seat, white on red:

KQ2

QJ98

K632 After two passes, the star on my right opens 1

. I cannot enter the auction yet, so I pass. South responds 1

, which is passed around to me. 1NT seems obvious, so I bid it. South, knowing his partner has partial spade support, bids 2

, which is again passed to me. Since I won't sell to 2

when they have an eight-card fit, I double for takeout. Partner leaves it in and we defend 2

doubled, though I have some trepidation as to the sensibility of this action.

	1053 A54 K542 A108
		K4 KQ2 QJ98 K765

South	West	North	East
Pass	Pass	1	Pass
1	Pass	Pass	1NT
2	Pass	Pass	Dbl
All Pass

Partner leads the

7, declarer ducks smoothly, and I put up the Jack. It holds, declarer following with the 3. That is a surprise. Partner must have underled the

A. We know something that declarer does not; I bet we can take big advantage of this. Can we reconstruct declarer's hand? He must have five spades and he cannot have four hearts or he would have rebid 2

. Since partner is marked with four hearts, he must be 3-4-3-3 or he would have bid 3

rather than leave in the takeout double without an opening bid.

It seems obvious to shift to the K, so I do. Partner signals encouragement and declarer wins the Ace in dummy. That's good; declarer might have had the J, and I would have just blown a trick. Quickly, I have to decide whether or not to play the K if declarer leads a spade. I think not; I'd like to get the chance to use it on the fourth heart. After a little thought, declarer leads a small spade off dummy and I am prepared to play low. Declarer wins his Ace and partner follows with the 9. That's good; he must have QJ9. Declarer continues with the 10. Partner bravely ducks again and declarer tries to drop my Ace, but that doesn't work as I win the Queen. We cash two rounds of hearts, ending in partner's hand and he exits with a club ducked to my King. We have book already and I'm sure that we are getting at least two trump tricks.

Can we really get him? Yes. I know declarer has the Q or J and has no club losers, but declarer does not know that yet. He thinks that I might be endplayed. I continue with the 9 and declarer blithely pitches a club as partner takes his Ace. The old winner-on-loser play! Now, when partner continues with the thirteenth heart, I can ruff with the K promoting a third trump trick. All in all, we take three spades, three diamonds, two hearts, and one club for +1100 on a partscore hand. The client is about to receive a lesson from the pro. As we leave the table, partner comes up to me and says, "That was FUN!"