The most underrated cards in the deck

Helena Bonham Carter, an English actress, said, “I do think imperfection’s underrated.”

At the bridge table, two cards are badly underrated: the twos (or deuces, if you prefer) and the 10s. The former because there is no card lower than a two, so if being used as a signal (discouraging, or an odd number, or suit-preference for the lowest-ranking of the relevant suits), it cannot be misconstrued -- as long as the defenders are on the same page. The 10s because they give finessing possibilities. For example, an entryless dummy has the A-4-3-2, and declarer has K-Q-10-5. To maximize the chance of four tricks, declarer cashes his king before crossing to the ace. If lefty discards, there is a marked finesse of the 10 to deliver four tricks.

How is a 10 useful in today’s deal? South is in six no-trump, and West leads the club 10.

Declarer starts with 11 top tricks: three spades, three hearts, one diamond and four clubs. The initial reaction is probably to take two diamond finesses. This is more likely to work (76%) than to try for four heart tricks by cashing the king and finessing the 10 (50%). However, those major-suit 10s can be put to better use as long as East does not have more than four clubs.

South takes the first three tricks with the club ace, club queen and club king. After East discards a heart, declarer runs the diamond eight to East’s queen and claims!

As declarer explains, whatever East returns now, it gives South a 12th trick. A spade to dummy’s 10 supplies a fourth spade, a heart to the 10 a fourth heart, and a diamond to declarer’s 10 a second diamond.