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!..."