Do not be blind to the inevitable

FRANK-N-ERNEST® GRIZZWELLS® BIG NATE® ARLO & JANIS® ZITS®

The Senior Life Master had been invited to give a day of lessons at a bridge club in Colorado. He was happy to escape the summer heat in his hometown.

He began by telling his audience that Charles-maurice de Talleyrand-perigord, a French politician and diplomat who died in 1838, had said that the art of statesmanship is to foresee the inevitable and to expedite its occurrence.

The art of bridgemanship (the SLM continued) is to foresee the inevitable and succeed despite the unfavorable distribution.

Look at the North-south hands on my first page. How should South play in six hearts after West leads the spade four?

South had a minimum for his twoheart response, which guaranteed at least a five-card suit. With only four hearts, he would have made a negative double. North launched Roman Key Card Blackwood, and five spades showed the diamond ace and heart kingqueen. North signed off, wondering if his partner had a singleton club.

West did well not to lead his singleton, because that surely would have pushed South in the right direction.

South started by counting the highcard points. Only 13 were missing, so it was almost inevitable that East had the club king. But declarer still needed to establish that suit. At trick two, he cashed the heart ace to check that the trumps were not 5-0. Then he took the club ace and played a second club.

East made dummy ruff a spade, but South cashed the heart 10, ruffed a club high, drew West’s last two trumps and claimed. No sweat!