Daily Bridge Club

Cy’s seamless play

“I heard you broke up with that dressmaker you’ve been dating,” I said to Cy the Cynic in the club lounge. (Cy has at least three relationships in progress at all times.)

“She broke up with me,” Cy said. “She got tired of the puns I was making about her line of work.”

“She was that upset?” I asked. “Sew it seams,” the Cynic said solemnly.

When I watched today’s deal in a penny game, Cy was South, and he and North combined to bid a slam that might have had no chance at all. Cy might have stopped at four spades, but he liked his sixth spade and side ace; North’s six spades, after he had already jump-shifted to suggest slam, was questionable at best.

West led the ten of hearts, and Cy took dummy’s ace, drew trumps and led a club for a finesse with dummy’s eight. He was hoping, reasonably enough, that West held the ten plus the queen or king.

East won with the KING and led a diamond. Cy took the ace and led a second club to the nine — and he discovered that things were not as they seamed. East produced the ten and led a diamond to West’s king for down two.

Suppose East wins the first club with an honest ten and returns a diamond. Cy takes the ace and needs a winning heart finesse to have a chance: He leads a heart to dummy’s jack. He discards a club on the king of hearts, takes the ace of clubs and ruffs a club. When East-West follow, Cy gets back to dummy with a trump and discards his diamond loser on the 13th club, making the slam.

South dealer

N-S vulnerable