Sponge

Hi all

I’m counting down on my days of freedom & slacking. On Monday I’ll start my QA job at Newfield Wireless, a service provider for large telecom companies. A bonus for me is that it’s really, really just around the corner. I’m happy. And I can confess that again bridge has proven to be the vital key in me finding a job. Seriously, one day scientists will discover bridge cures diseases too, I’m positive.

Here’s a small deal from a Piedmont Monday night game.

All vulnerable l opened the South hand with a 12-14 NT and got to play there. Of course the opponents found a lead and damage control was priority one, as I could only count two solid tricks. My RHO won the King of and returned a small one. I had nothing to think about and threw my Queen which won the trick to my surprise. 

Processing the information at the table. RHO has both honors, honors are probably split, so West is the favourite candidate for holding the Ace. I proceeded accordingly and played my Ten to the Queen. She survived, and when I finessed against the Jack on the way back West won it with the Ace. So far so good, I can count five tricks now: two , two and a . The opponents take their and I discard to this position:

West now annoyingly switched to a . I don’t want to chuck up the sponge for -200. So after I’ve cashed the King of I go after the . I play my small to dummy’s 9 and East wins with the King. I take the continuation and sacrifice my Queen of to West who grinds his teeth and surrenders his Ten to dummy’s Jack. Well, who would have thought that anemic dummy was actually going to take two tricks?

The defence was correct up to the point where I played my small towards dummy. If West had risen with the Ace to continue setting up a winner, then his partner would still have the King as an entry. I was happy with -100, as a lot of pairs made eight or nine tricks in .