13 hours Ago
Today’s deal is from the club’s most recent Saturday night duplicate. When Hard Luck Louie declared this deal, he rose with dummy’s queen on the opening spade lead, winning the trick as East followed with the jack. Louie led a club to his ace and ran the jack of diamonds, winning the trick.
He cashed dummy’s ace and king of diamonds, felling the queen, and crossed back to his hand with the king of clubs to cash two more diamond tricks. When he tried to build his ninth trick in hearts, East grabbed his ace and returned his low spade, West took the rest of the tricks for down one. “I did my best,” said Louie.
“I knew West had to hold the queen of diamonds for me to have a chance, but I still couldn’t quite make it.” Lucky Larry played the same contract with the same opening lead. He played low from both hands on the opening spade lead, making West a present of the 10 of spades.
West cashed the ace of spades and led another spade to Larry’s king. Larry also took the diamond finesse to take five tricks in that suit. When he finally led a heart to dummy’s queen and East’s ace, East had no spade to lead, so Larry made his contract with one spade trick, one heart trick, five diamonds and two clubs.
Nicely done! Published - January 30, 2025 09:02 am IST Copy link Email Facebook Twitter Telegram LinkedIn WhatsApp Reddit Goren Bridge / cards / games / The Hindu Sunday Magazine.
