Fake News
By Mark Horton In 46th World Bridge Teams Championships On 31st August 2023
If Zia sends you a deal you can be sure it will be interesting!
This one is from the fourth session of the quarterfinals:
Looking at the South hand Zia envisaged a possible (making) save in spades at some point but was anxious to avoid a diamond lead. That prompted him to try the effect of 4
, rather than a real splinter in hearts.
When East led the 
K it only required West to be the one holding the 
K for 5
doubled to be as Zia described it, a ‘doddle’. When East turned up with it the result was one down, -100.
It earned him what he described (with tongue in cheek) as a rare ‘nice bid’ from his partner!
North led the A and declarer emerged with 12 tricks, +480 and 9 IMPs, part of a 54 IMP burst by USA2 at the start of the fourth quarter.
Zia’s Bridge-A Love Story contains an example of a ‘fake splinter’ – now he has an example for volume 3!
