Dubious Logic

Prayer Sheets

It used to be the case only at national bridge tournaments and the like that one received copies of the hands afterwards. I always thought that organisers underestimated the simple pleasure this gave to the participants; the ability to discuss and relate with accuracy, especially for those of us with less than perfect memories, prompted with the exact cards. All local competitions have hand records these days and things are moving on. At the Schapiro Spring Fours over the May bank holiday weekend, each deal was accompanied by double-dummy analyses giving the maximum number of tricks available in each strain.

Naturally some of the outcomes required visibility of all four hands but some did not. I could see no way of making game here – can you? Both vulnerable, dealer West:

South led the spade four; knave, king, ace – what now? The heart spots conspire to allow you just one entry to dummy and that you surely need to cash a club to dispose of your spade loser. Accordingly, after drawing two rounds of trump in hand, I tried to induce North to take the first club by playing the ten. This attempt didn't register and I was quickly one down. Can better use be made of that heart knave?

You should play ace and heart to table and ruff a diamond, now when you lead a club the best South can do is win and try a spade to establish North's ten. However, in dummy again, you ruff the last diamond. Now a second club and though North wins and cashes a spade, he cannot get off lead without giving a ruff and discard. This line works unless North has exactly two club honours and three or four cards in the suit.

So, told how to play by a computer what could be worse than that? Ah, yes, it was my team-mates who pointed this out. Having lost a hundred in 5♦-1 on the North-South cards they spoke from some sort of high ground.

Published Saturday 13.May.2006