bridge

“The power will come back on right after you finally locate the flashlight.” — Murphy’s Law Unlucky Louie’s last name should be Murphy. “We bought a new dishwasher,” Louie told me disgustedly. “The very next week, Consumer Reports rated dishwashers. The one we bought was ‘ unacceptable’; the one we considered buying but didn’t was ‘ best buy.’” Everything happens to poor Louie. As today’s South, he landed at the excellent contract of six diamonds. West led the king of hearts, and Louie took the ace and drew trumps. East pitched two clubs. Louie then took the A- K of spades — and West discarded. Louie could ruff his fifth spade with dummy’s last trump, but he lost two hearts. “All I needed was a 2- 2 trump break or spades to break no worse than 4- 2,” Louie groaned. “My chances were better than 90 percent.” How would you play the slam? If Louie’s line of play had been a product, it would have been recalled. After Louie draws trumps, he should take the king and then the ace of spades. If both defenders followed suit, Louie could ruff a club and finish the spades to discard a heart from dummy. He would ruff a heart with dummy’s last trump and lose one heart at the end. When Louie sees the spades break 5- 1, he has an extra chance: He leads dummy’s king of clubs for a ruffing finesse. When East’s ace covers, Louie ruffs, takes two more high spades, ruffs his last spade in dummy and discards a heart on the queen of clubs. He loses one heart.