Hi Bobby,

I think I see it. After the AS is discarded, South takes his KQS. If East discards a club, South next plays four rounds of clubs. East takes the fourth round and can cash a fifth round to bring the defense to four tricks. But now East is forced to lead a diamond and declarer takes the rest.

If East instead discards a diamond, South plays three rounds of clubs. If West discards two diamonds, declarer can now just take three diamonds as each defender only has two left So, he has to keep three diamonds. But now, West is thrown in with the JS and, like East above, can take a fourth defensive trick, this time in hearts, but is now forced to concede the final three tricks (and South avoids any drama of making a guess when West leads a diamond by simply discarding a diamond on the heart saving his carefully preserved 2S for the ninth trick just because the ever-valiant deuce deserves to be the hero now and then).

Did I miss anything?

Cheers,

Jeff

Hi Jeff, Bobby,

Looks good but a complication here is that if East has to exit with diamond later at a point where there are at least 5 D left, East should exit with an honour whether holding Qx(x), Jx(x) or QJ(x). Easy to read double dummy but otherwise it is a case of rule of restricted choice vs “Is East god enough to lead an unsupported D honour?”.

Regards,

Iain

Hi Iain,

That’s a good point. Can we say East has shown enough so far that if he also started with QJx in diamonds, he might have ventured a 3H bid at favourable vulnerability to try to shut out the opposition? But you’re right, it is not stone-cold if East leads the queen.

Cheers,

Jeff

Hi Jeff & Iain,

How many ways do you two bridge stars want to embellish this already possibly award winning puzzle? However, I do admire your always interesting discussions about more puzzles to solve. Is this a great game or what?

Hi Jeff, Bobby,

Thanks for the thoughts and also it is worth noting how constructive and friendly comments tend to be on this site. I’ve tried to ditch the Mk1 version of my bridge persona from my 20s (I’ll be 66 in March) which existed before I took a 25 year break from the game from 1986, and could best be described as needing tranquilisers (or possibly just a slap round the chops). If anyone has read Alan Sontag’s “The Bridge Bum” I suspect I was uncomfortably similar to Ira Rubin on a bad day.

I hope the Mk 2 version is better (partly due to the CPR incident where I tried to keep someone alive – keeps the game in perspective!) but I’ll leave it to others to judge my success or otherwise. I still have the odd moment where I mutter OFDS at the ceiling (a typo based on “Oh for Duck’s Sake”) if you’ll pardon the expression, but even those cases are fairly rare now.

Regards,

Iain

Hi Jeff & Iain,

No one has had an experience I once suffered, when someone once told me to go to H— and I almost immediately thought, if given that alternative, and if so, I would likely be in a better place.

Hi again Iain,

Might it please you to be informed that a former friend of yours said that you are not nearly as fearful a friend as others thought, but, just in case, he prefers former.

Since my guess is that he only knew you by your playing bridge personality and that just because he won so much money from you, that is not fair to think that way. He only just replied, “Oh for Duck’s Sake”! The only one I know is named “Donald”.

Hi Bobby,

Thanks for that and worth considering which cartoon characters might make the best players or at least the most explosive partnerships. Of course detectives have already been done and Mollo’s creations take some beating, but there is scope for the imagination to run riot here.

Iain