DAILY BRIDGE CLUB

“I held the queen alone and wasn’t sure what I should do,” Unlucky Louie told us in the club lounge.

“I’d say it depended on what time the king was expected to return to the castle,” Cy the Cynic offered.

Louie was showing us today’s deal from that day’s penny game.

“I was North,” Louie said. “My partner opened two clubs, game-forcing, and I responded two diamonds, negative. For a positive response of two hearts, I needed two of the top three honors. Partner then leaped to six clubs. Wouldn’t you bid seven with my hand? I had promised nothing, and I had the queen of trumps and an ace.”

We all agreed that Louie’s grand-slam bid was reasonable, even though he was jeopardizing a sure profit.

“West led the queen of hearts,” Louie went on, “and my partner took the ace and discarded his jack of spades. He next cashed six rounds of trumps and the A-K of spades, but when West clung resolutely to all four of his diamonds, my partner lost the 13th trick.”

“You were unlucky,” the Cynic commiserated with

Louie. “The jack of diamonds might have fallen or the defense might have slipped.”

Louie was also unlucky that South was declarer. South should play a low heart from dummy at Trick One and ruff in his hand. He then cashes the A-K of spades. When the queen falls from East, South goes to the queen of trumps, discards his 10 of diamonds on the ace of hearts and easily takes the rest.

If the queen of spades didn’t fall, South could lead a trump to dummy, discard the jack of spades on the ace of hearts and rely on the diamonds.