How do you stand on reunions? I always thought nothing on earth would get me to one but you live and learn. School reunions were the biggest no-no — who wants to see what they’d look like if they hadn’t spent a freaking fortune on themselves and deprived themselves of food most of their life? But last weekend I was summoned to a family reunion and it was heaven. At the end of all the celebrations, the laughter, the tears, the compliments, the drunken maudlin hugs, a core group of Bridgies found each other and stayed up late discussing hands.
Apart from ability, style is the great divider. There was a lot of ‘What do you bid’ examples and I came up with this hand from the Easter Pairs Championship, played against a multiple world champ. Do you double, risking giving away vital information about the layout, or do you sit back and hope it goes off?
The opening lead of the ♣K was won in dummy, and a heart went to the King and Ace.
West played two more rounds of clubs, declarer ruffing. Armed with the information that the trump finesse was not working, declarer led a small spade towards dummy, West had to play low, and the ♠J scored. Now the road is pretty clear: ♦A and a ruff in dummy, back to hand with a heart and ruff the last diamond, cash the Queen of hearts and lead any card from dummy to your ♠8. West can win the trick, but has to lead into declarer’s AQ of spades.
They were all quiet and then one of my cousins, a pretty smart and experienced player said: ‘What happens if you duck the King of hearts…?’
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