Daily Bridge Club

Baker Street bridge

“Holmes, you have outdone even yourself. That was quite a subtle defense.”

“My thanks, Watson. But it was nothing to speak of.”

Dr. Watson and Sherlock Holmes were at Holmes’ Baker Street diggings, reviewing a match against Professor Moriarty. In today’s deal, Moriarty had played at four hearts after he opened 1NT and North used Stayman.

“I would have doubled 1NT with your hand,” Watson mused.

“It is wrong, Watson, to double 1NT with a balanced assortment of high cards. I had no idea whether I could defeat 1NT, especially if I doubled and revealed that I held the missing honors.”

Against four hearts, the detective led the king of diamonds: ten, nine, five. What do you suppose he led next?

At Trick Two, Holmes shifted to the deuce of spades. Moriarty won with the queen and led trumps, and Holmes won the second trump, cashed his ace of diamonds and exited with his last trump.

“Moriarty had to guess the queen of clubs to make his game,” Watson observed. “He misguessed, playing East for the queen, and went down one.”

“The professor was virtually compelled to misguess,” Holmes said. “He is a nefarious character, but he is capable of logical thought. When I led a spade at the second trick, Moriarty inferred that I thought you might have a queen. But when you failed to hold the queen of spades, you must have the queen of clubs. Moriarty assumed that if I had all the missing honors, I would have defended passively. But I doublecrossed him.” “Amazing, Holmes.” “Quite elementary.” South dealer E-W vulnerable