Mike and Nancy were hosting Saturday night dinner for their new neighbors, Rita and Phil. Nancy, Rita and Phil were all avid bridge players. Mike played now and then, preferring games of Pigs Knuckles with his pals at the local firehouse. "Pigs Knuckles" was their nickname for Double Deck Pinochle that some of the boys routinely played most Tuesday nights.
 
Those who play pinochle know it has some similarities to bridge, with "tricks", "bidding" and "trump suits", but uses decks of 48 rather than 52 cards - two of each card from the ace to the nine. No spot cards below the nine are used. And in pinochle, the ten outranks the king and is the second-highest card in any suit.
 
When Nancy dealt out the first bridge hand, Mike's habits from pinochle may have joined with the wine from dinner as he arranged his cards into suits. He  placed his ♠10 next to the ace, Pinochle-style.
 
When Phil opened the bidding, Mike doubled for takeout, and when Nancy invited game, Mike blasted right into a spade slam. Rita led the eight of diamonds, and Phil's ace was quickly trumped. But with no quick and sure entry to dummy, things looked bad, with both missing kings surely behind dummy.

Resigned to his fate, Mike started by pulling trump - and serendipity appeared! He played his ace of spades, and continued "from the top" with the ten, the next card under his thumb. This ran around to Phil’s ♠J, neatly endplaying him!  A Heart or Club lead now, away from either king, would be permitted to run around to dummy with its diamond winners. An immediate diamond return would obviously do no better.
 
Supposedly, it was Nancy who christened Mike's "brilliant" ace-then-ten play the Pigs Knuckle Coup.
 
It's true that an alert Phil could have seen the possible endplay coming, and discarded his spade jack under Mike's ace. But if he had unblocked, we'd have no story to tell...

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