Bridge in the Tri-Cities: Sleepy Time

Opening Lead: Jack of diamonds.

Bridge requires the players to be alert and to concentrate. The East player in today’s deal was taking a nap and awoke too late to recover. He counted his 12 points without noticing that he could take 10 tricks with almost any distribution of the other 39 cards.

The Bidding: It looks like there are ten tricks after losing a spade, a heart, and a club. It is unlikely that the auction will end with a 1S bid, but why take the chance. Bid 4S at once! If you cannot make 4S, the opponents can surely make game in another suit. On the actual auction, East still should have bid 4S at his second turn since he knew that his partner had a least six points to bid 1NT.

The Play: There were no surprises and declarer took 11 tricks. Notice that there are 10 tricks available even if West does not have the three honor cards that he held.

The Result: 4S was bid and 11 tricks were taken at all the other tables except one. At that table, 4H went down one.

Bridge Futures: The Richland Duplicate Bridge Club (RDBC) has a game at the Richland Community Center at 5:30 p.m. on Mondays. RDBC also plays on the first, third, and fifth Friday at 12:30 p.m. at the Old Country Buffet, 6821 W. Canal Dr., Kennewick, WA. Call Tom Edwards at 946-1824 for details.

This story was originally published July 2, 2017 at 4:44 AM with the headline "Bridge in the Tri-Cities: Sleepy Time."