The cards appeal more than scenery

A little while ago, I rifled through a drawer in my office and found a “Peanuts” cartoon. Snoopy is looking over a valley and saying, “This is what we came for, troops. Look at the view.” However, Woodstock and his fellow birds are playing the deal in today’s diagram. But that is all the reader knows -- who has what. No bidding is shown in the strip.

Charles Schulz liked to play bridge, but when I approached him about having a game, sadly he declined. He said he did not play well enough. I replied that that made no difference to me, but it never happened.

Schulz said that he found the deal in a Charles Goren book. I have hypothesized an auction. West’s jump to four hearts shows a weak freak -- probably five trumps, a short suit somewhere and a poor hand. South’s double announces a good hand. Six spades is a bit of a shot, but not unreasonable.

After the heart lead, South wins with dummy’s ace, ruffs the heart 10, draws trumps and plays on clubs, hoping to find a 3-3 split. Then the opponent who wins the third round will be endplayed. He will either have to lead a diamond, finding the queen for declarer, or to concede a ruff-and-sluff. Declarer sluffs a diamond from his hand and ruffs on the board. But when the bad club split is revealed, South must find the diamond queen. Well, East seems to have begun with two spades, five hearts and one club. Therefore, he has five diamonds. Declarer cashes dummy’s diamond king, then plays low to his 10.