DAILY BRIDGE CLUB

When the afternoon’s penny game ended, Unlucky Louie, Cy the Cynic and I repaired to the club lounge and ordered a large pizza for supper.

“Will one pizza feed three of us?” Louie asked, knowing Cy’s appetite is prodigious.

“Depends on the volume,” I shrugged.

“Easy to calculate,” the Cynic said. “Given a pizza with a radius Z and a thickness A, V = Pi(Z*Z)A.”

Cy may know how to figure the volume of a cylinder, but he either doesn’t know much about percentage play or prefers to operate by instinct. When Cy was today’s South, North’s first two bids showed a balanced hand with club support and slam interest. After Cy cooperated with a four-diamond cue bid, North jumped to six clubs.

When West led the jack of diamonds, Cy won in dummy and drew trumps. He next took the king of hearts and led to dummy’s jack. A winning finesse would have given him 12 tricks, but when East produced the queen, Cy had only 11 and no chance for another.

Cy’s play needed some extra cheese. He gave himself one chance when more were available. After Cy draws trumps, he can take two more high diamonds and next lead a spade to dummy’s jack.

When East wins, he must return a spade to avoid giving up a free finesse or a ruff-sluff. If Cy guesses to play the eight from his hand, he will be home. Even if Cy misguesses and plays the 10, he still has hope. He can cash his last two trumps, intending to finesse in hearts at the end.