Contract Bridge

There are players who see every hand through rose-colored glasses. Optimism certainly has its place in bridge and will usually pay handsome dividends when there is a sound basis for it, but the fact remains that an ace is an ace and a deuce is a deuce, regardless of who holds them.

It is clear that South in this deal was a full-fledged member of the Optimists Club.

He had an excellent hand, to be sure, but he obviously looked upon his three spade losers as something the good Lord would surely take care of — and he even carried this conviction to the point of redoubling East’s double of six hearts!

One thing that can be said about the habitual overbidder is that he is usually a pretty good cardplayer. He gets so much more practice playing contracts that are seemingly out of reach that he becomes highly proficient at getting the most out of his cards. Our declarer in this deal was no exception.

He won the spade lead with the ace and played a low trump to the jack, revealing the 5-0 trump division. Undaunted,

South cashed the A-K-Q of clubs, discarding a spade from dummy.

He then played four rounds of diamonds, disposing of his two spade losers. By this time nine tricks had been played, and declarer had won them all. East and South now each had four trumps, while dummy still had the 10-5.

Declarer next led a spade from dummy, and when East ruffed with the seven, South underruffed with the three! East’s low trump return ran to dummy’s ten, and South’s A-Q took the last two tricks to make six hearts redoubled!