QUICK CROSSWORD

There is a German proverb that goes: “If you have a good friend, you don’t need a mirror.”

If you have a good bridge partner, you don’t need a mirror, because from his bids and plays, you will learn what he has in his hand — assuming you are watching and interpreting, of course.

When you are the declarer, though, occasionally it would help to have a mirror to see the defenders’ cards. In this deal, how should South play in four hearts after West leads the club queen?

The auction was a simple Stayman sequence. When the dummy appeared, declarer noted the mirror distribution, both hands being 4= 4= 2= 3. This usually causes problems because there are no ruffs or discards. But here things looked okay. South anticipated taking three spades, four hearts, one diamond and two clubs. The only worry was a bad split in one of the majors. ( If both were 4- 1 or worse, the contract was probably hopeless.)

Declarer took the first trick with his club ace and drew trumps ending on the board. Then he played a spade to the nine, king and ace. Back came the club 10 to South’s king.

Now there was a temptation to play another spade. Yes, that would have been fine if declarer had finessed dummy’s seven, but that would have risked going down with spades 3- 2. Instead, South carefully played the ace and another diamond. West won that trick and cashed his club 10. Now, though, to avoid conceding a ruff- andsluff, West led his spade six. Declarer covered with dummy’s seven to win the trick and make his contract. Copyright United Feature Syndicate

( Asia Features)