Bridge

Pastimes

Game all; dealer South

North

4A 8 3

!K J 10

#10 9 7

2A K 6 2

West East

4K 10 7 4J 6 4 2

!8 6 5 4 2 !Q 7

#8 3 #A 5 2

2J 7 4 2Q 10 9 5

South

4Q 9 5

!A 9 3

#K Q J 6 4

28 3

"Greed! Sheer greed!" was South's comment after this deal. It sounded like an accusation but he was only talking about his own play. Not many players are so objective, and he certainly had a point.

South opened 1# and North (who afterwards wished he had bid a simple 3NT) responded 22. South rebid 2NT, suggesting a minimum opening bid in the partnership's methods, and North raised to game.

West led the !4 against Three No-trumps and, with the guarantee of three sure tricks in the suit, declarer played dummy's ten. This went to the queen and ace and South started on the diamonds. East, naturally enough, held up his ace until the third round, then exited with a heart.

After winning on the table, declarer made an attempt to reach his two winning diamonds by leading a spade towards his queen but, when West turned up with the king, he found himself restricted to eight tricks.

As long as South could come to four diamond tricks, he needed only two from the hearts. To preserve his certain entry to hand, he should have won the first trick with dummy's king, then played on diamonds.

Indeed, as North slyly pointed out, even if declarer had not thought of this before playing low from dummy, he could have recovered by letting East's queen hold the first trick!