Moses is 95 years old and still functioning! He goes to the swimming
pool every morning, he shops by himself, still drives his car and...
plays bridge once a week with his 3 "young" friends (Well... not really
young, but young in their soul and anyway younger than he is).
That is how it went for the last 50 years, once a week, every time in
another home.
Bridge has always been the "apple of discord" for him and his wife. Not
only because when it was his turn to host, the house was full of people
and shouting till the small hours, but also because every time after
playing Bridge he was impossible!
His head was still in the game, thinking about the played hands, and
his wife was simply unable to communicate with him. He was
distracted and couldn't manage to focus on anything whatsoever, for at
least one day after playing bridge.
After last evening's bridge session, Moses was thinking about this
hand, which he managed to make:
South deals, none vulnerable:
West lead the ♥Q.
Moses won the ♥A.
He realized West was 5-5 in hearts and clubs. At first, he estimated
that West couldn't have a singleton diamond because West showed 5-5 in
general and, in particular, he didn't lead a diamond, which meant that
it was more likely he would lead that suit with a singleton.
So Moses played two rounds of trump to verify his "theory" but
after West followed to the second spade it was clear that diamonds
don't break nicely (2-5-1-5 or void in diamond).
So... if East has ♦QJx
there is a loser in diamond in addition to the sure club loser. What to
do? He thought it over for a while before he found the solution: After
the second spade round he continued with the ♥K, throwing a club from
dummy, heart ruff, ♦AK
(West discarded a club on the 2nd diamond) and then he played the ♣J
from dummy and the ♣K from hand. West won the ♣A but was end played: no
matter if he continues with heart or club – Moses can ruff in dummy and
throw his diamond loser from hand.
The Bridge finished at 2AM and as usual Moses kept
on thinking about the hand while driving back home.
So much he was focused on it, that he forgot to stop at the red light
and bumped into a police car.
"Are you drunk, Sir?", asked the police officer.
"Drunk? No. I'm just old. I admit, I had a glass of wine during our
Bridge play, but I doubt that without it my poor driving skills would
be much better," admitted Moses.
"And where, might I ask, are you speeding like that at 2AM?" continued
the police officer.
"I'm not really speeding. I'm a slow driver usually. But to your
question – I'm late for a lecture on 'Bridge, and its bad influence on
marriage in general, and on my driving skills in particular'," said
Moses.
"Really? And who is giving lectures at this hour of the night?" asked
the skeptical policeman.
"My wife!" answered Moses with despair.