Daily Bridge Club

Rose’s tender offer

I was in the club lounge with Cy the Cynic when a kibitzer came in from the penny game. There had been a ruckus. “Rose just asked Grapefruit if he would take $100 to resign from the club,” the kibitzer said wearily. “If I were Grapefruit,” Cy muttered, “I would hold out for a better offer.” Grapefruit, our acid-tongued member, berates his partners mercilessly. “What brought this on?” I asked. It seemed that Grapefruit, today’s West, led the three of hearts against South’s four spades, and East took the ace and returned the queen. Declarer won — Grapefruit followed with the deuce — and led the queen of trumps, losing the finesse. East then led the eight of diamonds. Grapefruit took his ace and tabled his jack of hearts — and South ruffed. He drew trumps and ran the clubs for two diamond discards, making four, and Grapefruit announced that East was so dumb, he probably thought AM radio stations signed off at noon. “You should have known the man had no more hearts,” East growled. Grapefruit told the kibitzers that East was a few peas short of a casserole, whereupon Rose, who had been dummy, made her not-so-tender offer. Both East and West were wrong. Grapefruit should return a diamond after taking his ace; if declarer had a heart loser, he would have discarded it on dummy’s clubs before he led trumps. (If he held, Q J 9 7 5 2, K 9 5, 5, A 6 2, East would have bid.) But East knew West had started with five hearts. When East takes the king of trumps, he must lead the king of diamonds, then a second diamond. North dealer Both sides vulnerable