Janet de Botton

Bridge | 4 January 2018

issue 06 January 2018

Well, I had a very merry Christmas thank you — and I hope you did too — but as usual I have torn myself away from the festivities, rushing back to play the EBU’s Year End teams’ tournament. I don’t know why I enjoy this tournament so much — it’s certainly not the very unglam venue. Perhaps it’s because it’s fun and buzzing and everyone seems in a good mood to have got through another Christmas intact. It’s the perfect way to ease yourself into the New Year.
 
My (bridge) resolution is the same as it was last year — take longer before playing to trick one.
 
In America, every second player you encounter tells you they always take a couple of minutes to work out a plan when dummy goes down. Why, oh why can’t I? Although frankly I doubt I would find the winning solution to this hand if I took a week:
 
In the first room Declarer, let’s call her Janet, won the ♠King in hand, drew trump, cashed the Ace and played a Club towards dummy’s King.





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