Daily Bridge Club
Cy’s harem of queens
“I knew I was in trouble when I saw my hand,” Cy the Cynic grumbled to me in the club lounge.
In a duplicate game, Cy picked up today’s West hand — and beheld a harem of queens. But North-South bid expeditiously to 6NT, and Cy had to pick an opening lead.
“You know how leading from a king is a nervous business,” Cy said. “Well, leading from a queen can be more taxing. I knew my partner had nothing. Whatever I led might give declarer a free finesse and an extra trick.”
The situation proved to be even worse. Cy shrugged and led the deuce of diamonds from his longest suit. South, an expert declarer, won with the jack and wondered why Cy had chosen a dangerous lead from a queen against 6NT. There could be only one answer, so South cashed the king of clubs and let the nine ride.
South then had 12 tricks — three diamonds, five clubs, two spades and two hearts — but he wasn’t done. Playing Cy for both majorsuit queens, South took the king of diamonds and cashed his A-K of hearts (a “Vienna Coup” to set up Cy’s queen, preparing for a squeeze). Declarer then took the ace of diamonds, pitching a spade from dummy, and finished the clubs.
Dummy’s last three cards were the K-5 of spades and jack of hearts, and South had the A-J-6 of spades. Cy had to throw a spade to keep his queen of hearts, and South backed his reading of the cards and took the K-A of spades.
Making seven. You can guess how many matchpoints Cy and his partner scored for being minus 1470.
“Women,” the Cynic snorted. “Can’t live with ‘em, can’t live without ‘em.”
South dealer
N-S vulnerable