BRIDG E

One of the hazards of playing online bridge in a tournament event where live kibitzing is allowed and those spectators are permitted to commentate for all (but the players) to see: those armchair critics, able to see the entire layout, will mercilessly castigate any unsuccessful declarer who makes a play they would “never” make.

A natural auction to the decent game that didn’t have a happy ending for NorthSouth.

Diamond lead to the ace for a club shift, not a surprising move given dummy’s abject weakness in the firstbid suit.

Declarer fave that some study but eventually played the Queen only to quickly learn that wasn’t best as West produced the King, delivered a club ruff on the way back with East grabbing the spade ace for the setting trick.

“He didn’t have to take the club finesse”.

“The only danger was a club ruff – win the ace and draw trumps”.

“My grandmother would have made that game in her sleep”.

You get the drift but at least the droll criticism isn’t seen by the poor player who certainly realized after the fact that he could have made ten tricks by grabbing the club ace, drawing three rounds of trumps and going about his business of setting up spade tricks and forcing out the club King.

And while that line of play would not only have been successful after the fact but would have been entirely reasonable from the get-go.

But what if trumps had been 4-1 and East had been dealt the club King to make South’s line of play the only way to succeed? Food for thought!