JOHNNY SUPREMO SPOTS THE DANGER.......................................

• Is it me being brilliant......or others just being plain stupid. There I was the other night routinely making a standard four hearts tick, only to see the scoresheet littered with 4H -1 all over the place. What is up with these people ? Dummy had come down with what I had hoped for: a very useful:......Kxx .......98xx.........KJxxx.....x..................opposite my tasty..........AJ109....QJ10x.....AQxx.......x
• MY LHO had entered the bidding with a vulnerable 2 club overcall, supported by his partner on the basis of shape. His opening lead of all cards was the queen of spades........straight into the jaws of death ! But was he insane ?......I think not.....It was the great man himself.....Bigot-Johnson .....a player we have come to revere and fear.
• What then was his game plan? He was obviously after a spade ruff, envisaging the play to go as follows. I win the first trick and play a heart, losing say to Bigot's King. Then with the opponents back on lead comes a second spade, which I take in order to play another round of trumps . But now Bigot-Johnson swoops in with the Ace of hearts, ready for the kill. A simple low club switch puts his partner in to lead back a third spade, for him to ruff with his third heart, and defeat the contract. Surely this was the way it must have gone elsewhere in the room?
• So what was my game plan? The answer is at trick two I elected to play a club ! Whoever takes this trick can indeed play back a second spade, but the danger of a ruff is over if Bigot holds the two top hearts. Because now, he is unable to put his partner in for that crucial ruff. Yet another classic example of the scissors coup aimed at cutting the opponents' communications.