Janet de Botton

Bridge | 14 January 2023

issue 14 January 2023

Being caught with your hand in the cookie jar must be embarrassing enough, but almost worse is being suspected/accused of cheating when you’re not!

These days everyone (particularly online) is on their guard, and if you make a good play you can suddenly become the focus of attention for the wrong reason. My good friend Nick Sandqvist was playing a regular cut-in game on BBO with his favourite partner, when the following hand turned up (See diagram).

South’s hand is playable in three suits, so Nick elected to start the bidding on the 1-level, but when partner had enough to make a negative double (showing hearts) he was off to the races. West led the ♣K.

A Spade finesse into the overcaller was not on the agenda, so he had to somehow discard a Spade from dummy on the Diamonds, and ruff a Spade in dummy.

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