DAILY BRIDGE CLUB

During NASA astronaut training, candidates were taken to a room with only chairs, told to await further instructions and left there for two hours. Some fidgeted, some paced, others sat stoically. It was, of course, a calculated test of their patience.

Patience is a virtue in both dummy play and defense. In today’s deal, South’s Blackwood bid of 4NT was a mistake; North showed one ace, but South couldn’t be sure which it was. (North would have bid three spades with9754,Q732,A96,65.)So South’s bid of seven spades was a wild gamble; even if North had the ace of spades, South couldn’t count 13 tricks.

West displayed impatience when he led the ace of diamonds; unless South was totally crazy, he had a diamond void. When South ruffed, dummy’s king was a winner, but South still had only 12 tricks. He led a trump to dummy, discarded his jack of hearts on the king of diamonds and ran his trumps. West clung to his clubs, and South lost the 13th trick.

South should have exercised patience. After he ruffs at Trick One, he takes the king of trumps and next the A-K of hearts. The queen happens to fall from West, so South can draw trumps with the queen and ace, discard a club on the king of diamonds and claim.

If the queen of hearts didn’t fall, South would take the ace of trumps, pitch his jack of hearts on the king of diamonds, and cash the A-K of clubs. If no jack fell, South would try the queen of clubs, winning if clubs broke 3-3 or if East had four clubs as well as three trumps.

South dealer

N-S vulnerable