ONE A FAVORITE, ONE AN UNDERDOG

Zac Efron, an actor and singer, said, “I’m very competitive by nature. And I like to be the underdog. It’s the best way to win. To come from behind and win is a great feeling!”

At the bridge table, if you are an underdog to make your contract, but get lucky with suit splits and finesses, you will be happy, but your opponents will be pained, having gotten a bad board after doing nothing wrong.

In today’s deal, how should South play in both six clubs and seven clubs after West leads the diamond jack?

South’s two-club response was natural and game-forcing. Then, after Blackwood revealed that all four aces were held, South had a close decision whether to settle for six clubs or jump to seven clubs.

At Bridge Base Online, one pair bid six and one bid seven. The declarer in the small slam played perfectly. He took the first trick with his diamond ace and returned a diamond. He was able to ruff his third diamond on the board, draw trumps and discard the heart queen on the second high spade from the board.

The declarer in the grand slam took a no-chance line. He won with his diamond ace, played a club to dummy’s nine and took the losing heart finesse to go down two. But even if the finesse had worked, South still would have had a diamond loser to eliminate. He needed spades 3-3 and clubs 2-2 — a massive 14.5% chance. He should have ruffed a spade in his hand, drawn trumps ending on the board and discarded his losers on the high spades. Lucky, lucky, lucky!