"Oren, I'm leaving the club," Stella said to me in desperation.
"Why? Am I not smiling enough at you?" I asked with a large smile.
"No. It is just that in your club I never get any points while in other
clubs I get plenty. Today, for instance, every hand I lift – I have
zero points," she murmured.
Her partner added immediately with a wink: "Which is very good, for
today she makes no mistakes at all."
Stella got mad: "Obviously! How can I possibly make mistakes holding no
points? Come and have a look! Here, I am going to pick up the cards for
the next hand. I haven’t seen the cards yet. Let's make a bet that it's
another zero points hand."
Stella is so cute. Especially when she is mad... She was sitting East
and picked up a hand with a whole one point, which seemed an
improvement...
She threw me an angry "I told you so" look to prove her claim.
I remained at her table to see what happens (and also to give her some
mental support).
Dealer West, E-W vulnerable
Stella's partner doubled 4♠, angrily, with her heavy hand.
She lead ♣AK. Stella followed first with the ♣7 and then with the ♣8.
"At least I can help my partner with count giving," she whispered at
me, covering her mouth.
Her partner understood that declarer has no more clubs and switched to
the ♦K. Stella
rushed to follow with the ♦10.
She looked very bored and just waited for the hand to end.
Declarer won the trick with the ♦A,
ruffed a Diamond and played a Heart. He asked for the ♥Q when West played low.
Stella followed with the ♥9
and continued whispering at me, still covering her mouth with her hand:
"You see? I keep jealously all my points," she said cynically.
Declarer continued with a Club ruff and with the ♠AK. Then he played
another Heart from dummy, and When Stella played her ♥J he played LOW from
hand, allowing her to win the trick!
"What do you know? I managed to win a trick!" she continued
sarcastically. But now she was truly fixed, being on lead with only
Diamond cards remaining.
When she played a Diamond, declarer was able to throw a Heart loser
from dummy, ruff it in hand and claim the rest, explaining he is
ruffing Hearts in dummy and Club in hand.
Her partner was very angry: "Just when you finally got some points, and
you already manage to make mistakes,
giving away a doubled contract!"
"What points?! I only got one point!" yelled Stella.
"One point too many!!" her partner shouted back.
I decided to interfere in the "conversation," in an attempt to prevent
the thirld world war breaking here, in my club:
"Stella, you got end-played by winning that trick, it allowed declarer
a
ruff/sluff. You should have paid more attention to the play and throw
away that ♥J when
declarer played the ♥Q.
That way you will not get stuck in hand and declarer will always lose 2
Heart tricks, going one down."
Stella was miserable: "You want me to throw away all my points of today's
session? You are asking too much from me!..."
