FROM KING FEATURES WEEKLY SERVICE, 300 W. 57th Street, 41st Floor, New York, NY 10019 
CUSTOMER SERVICE: 800-708-7311 EXT. 257  
CONTRACT BRIDGE #12345_20261005  
FOR RELEASE OCTOBER 5, 2026
BYLINE: By Steve Becker  
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EAST SELLS A BILL OF GOODS
It may sometimes be necessary to misrepresent your hand to partner in order to achieve a particular goal. This is especially true on defense when a situation arises where you can afford to mislead partner without causing your side any injury.
Here is a typical case. Assume you're East and partner leads the king of hearts against four spades. You can tell from the bidding that declarer will almost surely make the contract with normal play. The most you can hope to score on defense are two hearts and a trump trick, since South must have the diamond king and the two black aces for his opening bid.
But you shouldn't be willing to concede the contract without putting up a fight. You might be able to throw a scare into declarer that will cause him to lose a trick he would not ordinarily lose.
So, with this in mind, you play the eight of hearts on West's king and the two when he continues with the ace. By playing the 8-2 in this fashion, you indicate that you would like partner to lead another heart.
When West continues with the three, South, who has observed your high-low, is very likely to conclude that you asked for the suit to be continued because you started with a doubleton heart. Since he has no good reason to doubt this, he is apt to ruff with dummy's jack of trump -- and if he does, you've got him!
When you follow suit to the third heart, South will realize he's been had, but it's then too late for him to do anything about it. Regardless of how he continues, he cannot prevent you from scoring two trump tricks, and the seemingly certain contract goes down the drain.
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