Where is the setting trick?

Bridge article I don't want to be Santa Claus anymore

In France, they call a player who permanently hands out gifts to his opponents a Santa Claus (père noël). When in defense, he will often let a contract through that was supposed to go down. Will you do better than our Santa Claus against this major-suit game contract?

The auction (Dealer South, None Vul.):

The start of the play

Thanks to this very reasonable Double, West leads the ten of Clubs, allowing our Santa Claus to take the first three tricks…

How declarer wins his contract

East realizes right from the start of the play that his partner has zero points (all he has to do is count the points). Therefore, he does not see where the setting trick can come from, given that his Queen of trumps can be caught with a finesse. He thinks for a moment and an idea comes to his mind. Trying to put on his best poker face, he delicately places the eight of Hearts on the table. His objective is to make declarer believe that he doesn’t have the Queen of Trumps and thus make him give up on the finesse. This subterfuge does not have the desired effect, since South does not fall for it and lets the eight run to dummy’s Jack. South then takes all the remaining tricks and makes his contract. Was there something else that could have been done?

The full deal

You need a Funbridge Premium or Premium+ subscription to keep reading.

Please log in with a valid Premium or Premium+ account to access the full article.