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August 2007

 

THE GRAND SLAM . . . A BRIDGE ODDITY      

 

You do not get to bid and play grand slams very often, so here’s a chance to show your mettle at taking all 13 tricks.  Your partnership has bid seven hearts and you, South, are declarer.  You may ponder the bidding if you like, but our focus here is on the play.  The two hands are:
 
NORTH
ª A K 3
© A Q J 2
¨ A K Q 9 4
§  9
 
SOUTH
ª 9
© K 10 6 4
¨ 7
§ A J 10 8 4 3 2
 
You are going to need to find the five outstanding trump divided 3-2, so count on that distribution.  West leads the heart nine.  How do you play the hand?

You have ten high-card tricks and need three more.  It is tempting to try to establish dummy’s nine of diamonds.  This trick plus a spade and diamond ruff would get you 13 tricks.  This line of play however requires a 4-3 diamond split to succeed.

Alternatively if you play for a 3-2 club split, you may ruff clubs twice and bring in the club suit.  The odds are better for clubs (about 70%) than diamonds (about 60%) and the play is easier.  To achieve this, take the first trump in dummy, play to the club ace and ruff a club.  Next play a trump to hand and ruff another club, high of course.  Now you can draw the last trump and run clubs, making 13 tricks.

Note: This hand was published recently in “The Aces on Bridge”.
 

  KEEPING BUSY 

 
A retired lady was asked how she keeps busy all day.  She replied as follows.  Well, the other day I went to town and into a shop.  I was in there for about five minutes and when I came out there was a police officer writing out a parking ticket.  I went up to him and said: ”Come on, how about giving a senior citizen a break.”  He ignored me and continued writing the ticket.  I called him a turd.

He glared at me and started writing another ticket for badly worn tires on the car, so I called him something worse.  He finished the second ticket and put it on the windshield with the first.  Then he started writing a third ticket.  This went on for about 20 minutes.  The more I abused him, the more tickets he wrote.

Personally I don’t really care.  I came to town by bus.  I try to have a little fun each day that  I’m retired.  It’s important at my age.   (A SNAPS reader and fond acquaintance, Joy Johns, sent me this story.)

BridgeSnaps newsletter is produced by John S. Thomas, author of Standard American 21.