Janet de Botton

Bridge | 3 July 2021

issue 03 July 2021

I have a confession to make. I did something I haven’t done for over 20 years: I went on holiday. A proper holiday. No bridge, no card games of any sort. No online kibitzing and no bridge reading or discussing. Just endless Covid tests and quarantine coming home — the only small problem being nothing to write about. ‘The Real Deal’ by Larry Cohen in the ACBL’s Bulletin magazine features one of the last hands played by the super-gifted Justin Lall, who tragically died last year, aged 33.

West led the ♥A and Declarer (Justin) made a plan. He needed the diamond finesse to work but he also needed to keep his major suit losses to three. At trick 2 West switched, correctly, to his ◆3, which Justin accurately read as a singleton, reasoning that no one would lead away from the ◆K in this position.

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