Dean Martin said, "When your opponent's sittin' there holdin' all the aces, there's only one thing to do: kick over the table."

I have never seen that at a bridge tournament -- but perhaps it has happened.

It is generally considered that the opponents are not on your team. But many of them, especially when on defense, will throw tricks in your direction. And there are also deals where you can force the opponents to help you.

South is in four hearts. How should he plan the play after West leads the spade king?

With the annoying mirror distribution in the minors, declarer has four potential losers: one heart, two diamonds and one club. It looks as though South must guess trumps. If so, what is the percentage play?

A priori, it is about 2 percent better to play for the drop. However, given the known uneven spade split, the odds have changed, making a finesse through East the favorite.

Declarer, though, with reasonable minor-suit breaks, does not need to guess at all. He should win with dummy's spade ace, ruff a spade in his hand, cash the club ace, play a club to dummy's king, ruff another spade, lead a diamond to dummy's ace, and ruff the last spade. Then South, who still has A-9-8 opposite K-J-10 in trumps, exits with a club or a diamond.

The opponents take their three tricks, but at trick 11, they must help declarer. Whatever is led, South ruffs low in the next hand and does not have to guess who holds the heart queen.

Perhaps East and West would wonder if they should have upended the table near the end!

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