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Notice that Rolfe wisely made a game-forcing 2♠ bid before showing his club support. Unfortunately, Blackwood had not yet been invented, so he was ultimately forced to jump to the club slam without being able to check for aces, let alone key cards.
Powhatan of course led his singleton heart. As Rolfe tabled his dummy, he commented to his partner that he really didn’t know how to bid his hand and he doubted the slam would be successful. Smith, a veritable gambler as well as a fine bridge player, spoke right up: “Partner, I’ll bet you I can make our contract, and if I do, I will ask the Chief for his daughter’s hand in marriage… but if it fails, she is all yours!” Rolfe was absolutely stunned but quite intrigued.
Fortunately, Powhatan did not know much English so he failed to understand the seriousness of the situation, but the pressure was certainly on Pocahontas, since it was truly Rolfe whom she desired to wed. How in the world could she beat the contract? Before reading on, think about how you would defend.
Declarer Smith recognized that the ♥4 was likely a singleton and Pocahontas did too. At the other tables, after the ♥J was played from dummy and East took the trick with the Queen, most defenders returned a low heart hoping their partner could overruff declarer. A few colonists tried to get clever by “attempting” to cash the ♥A, knowing it would get ruffed, but thinking that declarer wouldn’t realize their partner was also void, i.e. if declarer unwittingly ruffed low, perhaps partner could overruff.
Of course both of these strategies were likely to fail, since thoughtful declarers (including Smith) should have no problem ruffing high, drawing trumps in 2 rounds, ruffing out the ♥A (if it hadn’t been played as yet), and then claiming 12 tricks.
Did you find a better plan? Pocahontas did! She had become a student of the game and loved reading Smith’s copies of the American Colonial Bridge League’s monthly ACBL Bulletin. She particularly enjoyed the articles called “Dormer on Deception” written by Albert Dormer, yet another Englishman. One of his key points: “a defender should when possible play a card which he is known to hold” rather than give declarer “free information.”
It was clear to Pocahontas that the best way to defeat the contract was to attempt an overruff, but that might not work very well. She also appreciated that when she played the ♥Q it would be easy for declarer to ruff out her ♥A once trumps were drawn, since the opening lead made it obvious she held that card. Thus, when declarer played dummy’s ♥J, she won the trick with her Ace – the card she was known to hold! She then casually returned the ♥3.
Smith was delighted to learn that the Chief undoubtedly owned the ♥Q -- setting up hearts would surely be a piece of cake. He announced to Rolfe: “I wish I had a shilling for every time a defender wins the first trick and leads up to my tenace in dummy, hoping against hope that it is their partner that has the singleton rather than declarer. He pitched a low diamond and was stunned when the Chief’s 3 of trump appeared. Smith had been brilliantly bamboozled by his own protégé. Down 1 made Smith’s partner and his partner’s future bride very, very happy people.
As history has always known, on April 5, 1614, John Rolfe did in fact marry Pocahontas when she was about 18 years old and she gave birth to their son nine months later. But the untold truth has finally come to light!
Postmortem: Unfortunately, Pocahontas died just three years after the wedding. It is widely believed that John Smith attended her funeral and that he included the story of her fine defensive play in his eulogy. Believe it or not, he also predicted that someday identical bridge deals would be played simultaneously throughout the American colonies and such an event would be called The Commoner Game.
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