Monday, June 26, 2017

One point too many

"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!..."

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