September 2019 - 65

Special Contributors

George's World
BY GEORGE JACOBS

When declaring or defending a hand,
sometimes you must abandon one ship
and board another. What does that
even mean? Check out this hand from a
robot tournament on BBO on July 6:
♠AQ96
♥ A K 10 9 8
♦8
♣K97
♠K874
♠ J 10
♥Q7642
♥53
♦Q975
♦ J 10 6 2
♣-
♣ Q 10 5 4 2
♠532
♥J
♦AK43
♣AJ863
The bidding by us was:
North
1♥
2♠
6♣

South
2♣
3NT
Pass

Nice contract until the clubs go 5-0,
and there are some other possible losers.
The opening lead was a diamond and
there you are. Do you finesse the heart,
play for the ruffing finesse, take the
spade hook, try to endplay them, spill
your Diet Pepsi all over the cards and
ask for a redeal? That last will not work
this time as you are still on BBO, but
I have seen it used effectively before.
Well, not really, but boxing the ♠A
comes close. But that is for another

NOBET8888@aol.com

time. In my next book, titled "Cards
and Curs," we explore the darker side
of the table. But I digress.
My plan was to take the ruffing
finesse in hearts, draw trump at some
point and get pitches for my last diamond and a spade or two. The reason to
take the ruffing finesse is threefold. (I
once got my shirts back that way from
the laundry and I had to walk tilted for
a day.)
1. If it wins, you feel so good.
2. Whether it wins or loses, all the
hearts are good.
3. Even if it loses, you get to pitch a
loser. (Doesn't that sound like a
country-western divorce song? "He
threw me too many curve balls, so
I pitched him like a loser.") But I
digress.
At trick two, I led the ♥J, but LHR
(left-hand robot) didn't cover. I won
the ace and led a low heart, pitching a
spade. A second diamond came back to
the king, and now I played a club to the
king, getting very bad news. I ran the
♣9 (RHR didn't cover), then played to
my ♣8.
Now it is no good to go to the ♠A,
as RHR might ruff in too soon, so I
must take the spade finesse. By the
way, there is a clue that it will work. I
pitched a spade on the heart; if LHR
didn't have the ♠K, he would have
returned one.
The spade finesse won and I led a
good heart. RHR ruffed, but it really
doesn't matter. I was home free. I over-

ruffed, drew the last trump, and went
back to dummy with the ♠A, taking
my time so that my opponents could
really appreciate my skill. This result
was worth 91%.
From John Gillespie, another
Grosvenor of a strange kind. They
led a side suit against him. He had
K-Q-J-x in dummy opposite the stiff
ace. For some reason (and I am certain
we do not want to know what it is), he
played the king and overtook with the
ace. When he knocked out the trump
ace, his RHO tried to give partner a
ruff, "knowing" that John had the 10
from his play at trick one. This was
not successful, and John made his
unmakeable contract. It isn't exactly a
Grosvenor, but John did name his Jack
Russell terrier "Grosvenor."
With Claude as declarer, I made a
"discovery play" as dummy. Trumps
were diamonds, but I put the ♥K in
the diamonds. This way, when somebody says you have the ♥K in there,
now you know where the ♦K is. It is
beautiful in its simplicity. Lance Kerr
and Tom Reynolds were the opponents
and seemed very impressed. And lest
you think that you might only do that
in national events, I once did it in the
Cavendish, where the other three players were competing for a $1 million
purse. (I do not gamble.) Ron Smith
had the "other" ace of trumps, but told
me he just figured he was mistaken (!).
I hope you all won many points in
Vegas. What a great place for an event.
Chow.
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September 2019 Bridge Bulletin

65
September 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of September 2019
