Cape Argus E-dition

TAKE YOUR TIME BRIDGE PUZZLE

Both vulnerable. South deals.

Opening lead: Jack of ♣

The club’s Saturday night duplicate was well under way when Hard Luck Louie found himself at the helm in this four-spade contract. There were two certain losers — one in trumps and another in diamonds. The heart suit offered a double finesse opportunity — a 75 percent chance for success, which seemed pretty good to Louie.

Louie won the opening club lead with dummy’s ace and led a low spade. East rose with his ace, winning the trick, and exited with his remaining spade. Louie won in hand and ran the queen of hearts, losing to East’s king. Louie ruffed the club continuation and led a heart to dummy’s 10. This lost to the jack and the defense still had a diamond trick to come for down one. “Curse my luck,” said Louie. “Even my 75 percent plays don’t work.”

Lucky Larry declared the same contract with the same opening lead. He won with dummy’s ace, ruffed a club, and led a low spade to dummy’s seven. East won with his ace and returned a spade to dummy’s jack. Larry ruffed dummy’s last club and led the king of diamonds from his hand. West won with the ace and continued with the jack of diamonds. Larry won with the queen in dummy and ruffed dummy’s last diamond. Larry had eliminated the clubs and diamonds from both his hand and the dummy. He now ran the queen of hearts to East’s king. East had the unpleasant choice of leading a heart into dummy’s ace-10 or yielding a ruff-sluff. 10

THE XFILES

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2021-06-20T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-06-20T07:00:00.0000000Z

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