Bridge Simplest is best Today’s deal reminds

me of the man who couldn’t sleep because he heard voices under his bed. A psychiatrist offered therapy for $200 per hour, but the sufferer found a simpler solution: He hired a carpenter who charged $10 to cut the legs off the bed.

South arrived at four spades after opening with a weak twobid. When West led the king of diamonds, declarer took dummy’s ace and hastened to take the A-K of hearts to pitch his diamond loser.

Alas, West ruffed and led a trump, and when East took the ace and returned a trump, South was sunk. He won in dummy and led a club to his king, but West took the ace and led a high diamond. South ruffed, cashed the queen of clubs and ruffed a club with dummy’s last trump, but his fourth club was a loser. Down one.

South may have lost sleep over his play; he had a simple route home by counting winners and losers. South has only three fast losers — a diamond and the two black aces — and he can count 10 winners: five trumps, a diamond, a club, a club ruff in dummy and two hearts. So South doesn’t need a fast discard on the hearts. At Trick Two he should lead a club to his king.

Say West wins, cashes a diamond and leads his singleton heart. Declarer takes the ace, comes to the queen of clubs, ruffs a club, ruffs a heart high and ruffs a club. He then starts the trumps and is sure of 10 tricks.

If instead West leads a trump at the fourth trick, and East wins and returns a trump, trumps are drawn. South can win a trick with dummy’s second high heart, giving him 10 in all.

South dealer

Both sides vulnerable

The numbers in

the black cells are clues. Numbers above the slash are across clues, numbers below the slash are down clues. The goal is to enter digits 1-9 in the white cells to add up to the number clues. You cannot enter any digit more than once when adding up a clue.

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