“Now that we have self-driving vehicles, soon there will be a country song about a guy whose truck left him.” — graffiti
“I heard you’re looking for a new partner—again,” I told the Cynic. Cy has abandoned many “established” partnerships. He is happy as long as everything goes right.
“Look at this,” Cy told me, showing me the deal of the day. “I was north in a team match. When I opened two clubs, my partner called two spades on a four-card suit when he should have had five or more. I checked for aces and bid six spades.
“West led a heart, and East won and returned a heart. My partner had 12 tricks but didn’t take them. He cashed the QJ of trumps and then tried the AK of clubs. If East-West had followed, partner could have taken more two high trumps, unblocked dummy’s last high club and claimed, but East knocked out the other club.
“All partner had to do was lead a trump to his hand at trick three, rap his ten of hearts in dummy, just discard the ace of clubs and draw trump, beat the other two high clubs.”
“Too bad,” I said. I didn’t say that Cy could have considered bidding 6NT, which would have been unbeatable. “What happened at the other table?”
“North-South got six spades,” said the cynic, “and the first two tricks were the same. Declarer found the winning line. But my distinguished teammate in the East would have hit six spades by leading a trump at trick two. I need a brand new team.”
Good luck, Cy, finding a perfect partner and teammates.
North dealer
NS vulnerable
NORTH
SK 5 2
HKQ
DAKJ 5 2
CAQ
WEST
S 4 3
HJ 9 5 2
D 9 6 3
C 8 7 3 2
EAST
S 9 8 7 6
HAVE 8 6 3
DQ 10 8 4
C6
SOUTH
SAQJ 10
H 10 7 4
D 7
CJ 10 9 5 4
Northeast Southwest
2 C Passes 2 S Passes
4 NT Passes 5 D Passes
6 S All Pass
Opening line — H 2
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