BRIDGE

John Comyn

JUST recently I was approached by a very good intermediate player with a problem. He asked me about a slam hand which had gone down six times in a competition and he maintained it was not makable, despite the print-out.

It was an extremely difficult hand, and, even double dummy, it took me a minute or so to work it out.

The point of this is to maintain the hand was much too difficult at this level and perhaps a reason why you get so many different and often daft results.

Over again to BJ O’Brien: “Oh, I agree with your point, — but remember everybody plays the same hand, and it is often a case of you win some and you lose some. So often you will see that the very good player goes down with bad breaks, while the ordinary player stays out of very difficult contracts — for example when trumps break 4-0 as they often do nowadays.”

Here is an example of what I am talking about.

Butchered, of course, and same for EW if they get into hearts. Would you pass 2D? A good idea and W may be tempted to bid 2H, but that gets butchered as well.

The Muldoon Open Cup will be played at Dun Laoghaire BC, Clarinda Park, on June 9. Entries to Michael Rowan on 087-7638948.