BRIDGE

How much “good luck” should be enough when you’ve reached a promising ( but not iron- clad) contract?

South eschewed a one heart opening in favour of the more descriptive one notrump that was also designed to avoid rebid problems. The defect was of course the unstopped diamond suit but, hey, you can’t have everything!

GOOD LUCK # 1: even though the defense could take five diamond tricks, the long diamond suit was not on lead and West had been dealt a totally nor- mal lead of the Queen of clubs.

For South to win in dummy to start on hearts, the suit that might produce five tricks if the King had been dealt to East.

GOOD LUCK # 2: the heart King was indeed onside and South found that out immediately when trick two consisted of the Jack, King and ace of hearts as East covered dummy’s Jack for the best of all reasons.

But a second round of hearts brought double bad news as East pitched a spade that meant hearts weren’t splitting and that indirectly requested a diamond shift as soon as West could gain the lead.

With two dummy entries in spades, South didn’t need to lead that heart Jack for the first round of the suit, a low one would have done just fine and would have allowed the suit to be run thanks to the King’s arrival. Had the Queen ( or ten) won if East had contributed a small heart, back to dummy for a second finesse and , GOOD LUCK# 3, no need to apologize to partner for going down in a cold game!