Telling big lies

Cy the Cynic, unashamed cynic that he is, insists that people are basically untrustworthy.

“They tell lies all the time,” Cy said to me.

“Such as?” I pressed him.

“The number-one lie is ‘I’m fine’ when someone asks how you are,” the Cynic said. “And next is ‘I have read and accept the user agreement.”’

The result in today’s deal won’t make Cy any more trusting of his opponents. He was South in my club’s penny Chicago game, and he and North bid routinely to four spades. North’s response of 2NT was a conventional forcing spade raise, and since Cy had a minimum, he signed off at game.

West led the queen of clubs, and Cy took the ace, drew trumps, cashed his king of clubs and ruffed his last club in dummy. Hoping to make something of dummy’s hearts – at worst, to set up a discard for his diamond loser – Cy next led a heart from dummy: six, jack, ace. West returned the seven, Cy finessed with dummy’s eight and East won … with the king!

East then led a diamond, and Cy thought he was in the clear. He confidently put up his ace and led a third heart to dummy’s nine, expecting to discard his last diamond on the queen. Regrettably, nobody was around to take a photograph of Cy’s face when East produced the ten and cashed the king of diamonds for down one.

If East wins the second heart with the ten and leads a diamond, Cy will have no choice but to play low; he will make his game. If instead East wins the second heart with the ten and cashes the king, Cy will discard his losing diamond on the 13th heart.

South dealer

Both sides vulnerable