Bridge
Christopher Morley, who was a journalist, novelist, essayist and poet, claimed that something
“is a wonderful training for girls, it’s the first way you learn to guess what a man is going to do before he does it.” What was he talking about?
In today’s deal, you can try to guess what to do yourself, or you can call on the opponents to help. Clearly, it is better to get the opponents to assist you.
How should South plan the play in four hearts after West leads the spade jack?
South’s jump to three hearts was a super-accept. It showed four-card support, a maximum or nearmaximum opening and a doubleton somewhere.
Declarer won the spade lead on the board, drew trumps in two rounds and played a diamond to his king. West won with the ace, cashed the diamond queen and exited with a spade. Now South had to find the club jack for his contract; as you have no doubt surmised, he didn’t do it. He took the spade return on the board, played a spade to his ace and led a club to the queen. But East won with the ace and returned his second club: down one.
Declarer should have taken the simple precaution of eliminating the spades before playing a diamond toward his king. Then, after the defenders have taken their two diamond tricks, they must either lead a spade, conceding a ruff-and-sluff, or open up clubs, which saves South the guess.
In his quotation, Morley was talking about dancing. On this deal, South failed to step from trick to trick correctly. He trod on his own toes — and, effectively, those of his partner.