HE HAS A WINNER, SO AVOID HIM
Denis Healey, who was a leading Labour Party politician for 40 years in England, said, “The difference between tax avoidance and tax evasion is the thickness of a prison wall.”
In bridge, we have an avoidance play, but not an evasion play. One occurred in this deal. Sitting North was 11-yearold Jasmine Bakhshi, and South was 13-year-old Liz Gahan, both from England. They were using the Acol system with weak no-trumps (1214 points) and four-card majors. The result was a contract of three notrump by South. (If North had opened with a strong no-trump, that might have ended the auction. Inviting game with that South hand would not have been clear-cut, although feasible because of the good spot-cards.)
West led the diamond four, second-highest from a weak suit. East won with his ace and returned the diamond jack.
Gahan had six top tricks: two spades, one heart, two diamonds and one club. Naturally, she led a club to dummy’s jack at trick three. If East had ducked, probably declarer would have played the ace and another club. East, though, took the trick and led his last diamond. Now South had to avoid letting West win a trick and cash his diamond nine. She ran the heart nine, which East took with his king, hoping his partner had the queen-eight left as a guaranteed entry.
East exited with a low spade. South misjudged by playing her jack, but she took West’s queen with dummy’s ace, cashed her clubs, then ran the heart 10 to East’s jack. When the suit split 3-3, the contract was home. Copyright United Feature Syndicate (Asia Features)