January 2025 - 69

Special Contributor
George's World
BY GEORGE JACOBS
NOBET8888@aol.com
F
or four years, my wife Stacy
has laid low from bridge, but
recently she agreed to go to the
Puerto Vallarta Regional with me.
We played every day and did quite
well, winning two events with thirdand
fourth-place finishes in some
single-session events. The tournament
committee did a great job, having
been stiffed by the original host
hotel just two months prior.
And, of course, a hand came up that
I haven't seen before. Not even close.
The bidding was relatively normal,
and I suspect most people would get
to the same spot.
Stacy
s A K Q 7 5 3
h K Q J 3
d 8
c 10 9
Me
s -
h A 5
d Q J 9 6 4
c A 8 6 5 4 2
Stacy opened 1s, and I bid 2c. Her
2h rebid was followed by my 3d. She
showed her 6-4 pattern hand by bidding
3s, and I concluded the auction
with 3NT. A tip for those of you at
home: When there is a misfit, get out
as quickly as possible.
I got the opening lead of a heart.
Your job is to determine how many
tricks I took in dummy. We will come
back to that in a moment.
A cool thing happened during
the week. My friend Norm Webb,
who spends half the year in Puerto
Vallarta and half the year in Canada
(eh?), became a Life Master at the age
of 83. I think that is awesome. Norm
also golfs and scuba dives. He and
his wife Maxine run one of the two
clubs in PV. When you see Norm, say
" buono bolla " to him. It's Spanish for
congratulations (sort of).
OK, back to the hand at hand. How
many tricks does dummy take, and
when? As I surveyed the dummy, my
instinct was to unblock the hearts by
winning the ace, but then I could only
get eight tricks: four hearts, three
spades and the cA. I could try for a
4-3 split in spades, but how could
I get back there? So, at trick one, I
reluctantly played the hK, blocking
the suit and stranding the dummy
forever. But the opponents cannot see
declarer's hand, so they believed I still
had a spade to lead when I wanted.
I played the c10 and ducked when
RHO covered, preserving my two
aces as entries. I won the club return
and cleared the suit. Now they played
a heart back to me, and I ran three
more clubs. Imagine their distress
while pitching. The defender with four
spades needed to hold all of them, as
she " knew " I would run the suit if she
pitched one, so she let go of two hearts
and two diamonds. When I exited the
dQ, RHO won the king but had a different
problem. Holding just three spades,
he " knew " that I was about to run the
spades and was just toying with him.
Plus, he didn't know I was missing the
d10. So he cashed the dA and played a
third diamond. The d10 dropped on my
left, and my diamond suit ran.
Did you get that right? Dummy took
trick one and never took another trick!
A lady came up to me and asked if
Claude was real. Probably 500 people
have asked that over the years. If he
ever passes, I will have him stuffed
and cart him to all the NABCs.
People need to know that he is real.
Gonzalo Herrera came up to me
and asked if I had gotten any good
egg rolls while there. I hated to break
his heart, but there are no good egg
rolls in all of Puerto Vallarta. I did
have the best paella ever though.
Gonzalo and I made a date to play
sometime and go out for Chinese.
See y'all in Vegas, baby, home of the
all-night egg rolls. 2
continued from page 52
Defensive Basics ANSWERS
1 c10. You can spare this card
(make it as clear as possible - partner
might not be able to read the 9 or 8).
2 c2. You might as well tell partner
you don't like the suit. If you had,
say A-K-Q-9-8 in another suit, you
would discard the 9 of that suit instead
to send a clearer message.
3 c2? The question mark is because
you might not be able to afford any
discard, especially if dummy has
length/strength in the suit, perhaps
cA Q x x.
4 9? Another question mark. It is
unlikely you want to come down to
cK Q doubleton - so you should
probably discard some other suit.
5 s10. Encouraging. This also unblocks
the suit if partner has, say,
sQ 9 8 5 3
6 s7. Your lowest (discouraging).
Partner may not be able to read it.
7 c2. You like hearts but would
rather not discard one. All you can
say here is that you don't like clubs.
Hopefully partner figures out to
switch to a heart (the 8) with, say,
sK 10 6 5 3 h8 7 2 dA 5 4 3 cQ
for down two (you win the heart and
return a high spade for another heart).
8 sQ. This " attitude signal " shows
the sJ. It allows partner to underlead
at trick two, necessary if he has, say:
sA K x x hx x x dx x x cK x x.
The only time we signal with an
honor is if we have the one immediately
beneath it. 2
January 2025 | Bridge Bulletin |
69
January 2025

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