You MUST capture one piece on every move until only one piece remains. A king can't be captured. As usual, pawns capture diagonally moving up the page.

©DJB. Dist. Knight Features. All rights reserved

©DJB. Dist. Knight Features. All rights reserved

Move the cards listed below into the grid so that the best possible poker hand in each row and column matches the labels shown.  

The order of the cards doesn't matter: for example, 5-4-6-7-3 still counts as a 7-high straight.

A simple auction carries you to a small slam in diamonds.

How will you play this contract when West leads a low club to the nine and ace, East returning the three of clubs?

You ruff the club return and cross to dummy with a trump. What now? If East holds the king of spades, a successful spade finesse will yield the contract.

You can draw the last trump and ruff your three remaining major-suit losers in the dummy. If instead East holds the heart queen, you will fare better
by finessing in hearts.

You can then throw a spade from dummy on  the third round of hearts, again proceeding to ruff your three remaining losers in the dummy. Which finesse should you take?

Against 90% of the world’s defenders there is no need to guess! Lead the spade queen at Trick 3. If East has the king he will (wrongly) cover. If he fails to cover, rise with the ace, cross to dummy with another trump and take the heart finesse instead. You get the best of both worlds.

About David Bird

David Bird is the world’s most prolific bridge writer, with a record 109 bridge books to his name. 

He is bridge correspondent for several newspapers and contributes regularly to bridge magazines around the world. David is best known for his humorous bridge fiction, featuring the pompous Abbot of the St Titus Monastery. 

As a player, he is a Grandmaster and has won thirteen national championships. Married with two children, his other interests include football, travel and wine.

His books include: the Abbot series, the Robin Hood series, Teach Yourself Bridge, the Famous Hands series, Bridge the Modern Game and Tricks of the Trade (with Reese), Acol in the 90s, Secrets of Expert Play and Secrets of Expert Defence (with Forrester), the Rabbi series (with Klinger), Omar Sharif Talks Bridge (with Omar Sharif), Bridge with Imagination (with Helgemo), Bridge for Money and Inspired Cardplay (with Hoffman), the Bridge Technique series (with Smith), Bridge at the Edge (with Brogeland) Squeezeplay for Everyone, 10 Ways to Improve Your Bridge, the 52 Great Bridge Tips series, How to Plan the Play of a Bridge Hand.