As fate would have it Bigot was up against Percy Pantopod, and whoever triumphed on this last board was more than likely to take home the trophy. In no time at all Percy find himself as declarer in 6NT doubled, and this contract was coming in .....but only if Percy could bring in the spade suit without loss. Bigot of course was relying on his King of spades making ( over declarer's Ace )......well, he had bid the suit....... but the sight of AJ9 coming down in dummy was too much to bear. Bigot's holding of K102 looked very fragile indeed. Nevertheless, our intrepid hero recalled the infamous ( and quite subtle ) SUPERGLUE COUP. This is where a defender pulls out three cards together by mistake, but only two are exposed ( with one being stuck behind the other ). Because declarer only sees 2 cards, he quite rightly assumes that because they are adjacent in rank, the 3rd unexposed card has to be in the possession of the other defender. Armed with this false information, declarer may well be persuaded to take the finesse of this particular card at his peril.
However, Bigot did not have any glue upon his person, but clearly saw an opportunity to try a simple variation on this ruse. Having sorted his hand ( spades on the left ) he inadvertantly leaned forward allowing the unethical Percy to steal a glimpse of his holding, such was his tendency to do a little peeking. The first five cards he saw on the left were K3 of spades, J76 of hearts....... so Percy now knew what to do, since Bigot's partner held the 10542 of spades. From Q876, Percy carmly led the 6S, taking the trick in dummy with the jack. Back to hand, he then led the 7S, which brought out Bigot's King ( as expected ). This of course was taken by the Ace. All that was required now was a simple finesse of the 10, by leading the 9S from dummy up to his Q8. When Bigot's partner chose not to cover, Percy let it run.....only for Bigot to snatch the trick with the 10. Raucous laughter echoed around the room for several seconds.........and Percy, with no where to hide, simply slumped back in his seat a dejected and defeated man.
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