BRIDgE

“I can resist anything but temptation.” — Oscar Wilde

If he had been a bridge player, Mr. Wilde might have faced the same temptation today’s South found himself unable to resist — and, this time, would have been very glad indeed!

After a routine sequence to the heart game, declarer won dummy’s black Queen to call for the red one at trick two.

And when that drew the three and nine from his right and left hand opponents respectively, South envisioned a possible ten and nine doubleton on his left, a tempting holding that might allow the entire suit to be scooped up without loss.

And the next play of the heart Jack from dummy, uncovered by East of course, did just that when West followed suit with the anticipated ten.

South continued with a low spade to the ten and King and when West hungrily played back the Jack of diamonds, East played low to retain his tenace over dummy’s King.

Not a good idea this time as South won the diamond Queen and extracted the lurking trump before cashing the spade ace to reap some more good luck.

Spade to the eight and the spade Jack to dump the last diamond from the closed hand. Diamond ruff, two top clubs and a club ruff, and South had amassed the startling total of 12 tricks!

But imagine the struggle that might have ensued if the temptation to play trumps, as South did, had found that West had ducked the first round with three to the King and won the second round to play a third! Feedback always welcome at tweedguy@gmail.com