“WHY was Cy banging his head against the wall today?” a player asked me at the club. “Is that his latest method of trying to lose weight?”
Cy the Cynic still struggles to shed excess pounds – wishful shrinking in his case.
“Head-banging wouldn’t be worth more than about 150 calories per hour,” I said. “He was probably in distress at going down at this game.”
I displayed today’s deal. Cy, South, made his first mistake when he leaped to five clubs instead of passing North at 3NT. West led a spade, and East captured dummy’s king and returned a spade. Cy pitched a heart, took the queen and led a diamond. East played low, and Cy’s queen won.
Cy next ran his trumps. His last three cards were the Q-10 of hearts and a diamond, and dummy had the A-J of hearts and king of diamonds. Cy expected to toss East in with the ace of diamonds for an end play, but East discarded craftily: He threw the seven of hearts and jack of diamonds early, saving the bare king of hearts and A-10 of diamonds. When Cy exited with a diamond at Trick 11, East won and cashed the 10 of diamonds, and Cy headed for the wall.
“It serves him right,” my friend observed.
Cy should ruff the second spade, draw trumps and lead a low diamond from dummy. If East grabs the ace, Cy has two diamonds, seven trumps, a heart and a spade. If instead East plays low on the first diamond, Cy takes the queen, leads a trump to dummy and discards his last diamond on the queen of spades. He loses one spade and one heart.