Frieda Mayer, just back from Sydney, was looking forward to seeing her new partner Gordon Rhode again. She wanted to boast of her play on this hand. She was West, in 4♥, and got the ♠Q lead, seeing these cards:
| West (Frieda) | East (Dummy) |
| ♠K96 | ♠AT3 |
| ♥QJ52 | ♥AKT9 |
| ♦52 | ♦QJ764 |
| ♣KQT5 | ♣9 |
“What would you have done, Gordon?” she said breathlessly.
Gordon waved an imperious hand. “I suppose you let the lead run round to your King and then finessed North for the Jack of Spades” he answered.
Crestfallen, Frieda nodded.
“A far better line is to take the lead in dummy and play a club” continued Gordon. “Then you can discard your spade loser on a high club before they can knock out your other spade honour – you never know the lead could have been from Queen doubleton”. Gordon continued with the same lack of tact. “By retaining the King of Spades in your hand you have another entry into your hand in order to lead towards the diamond honours”.
What do you think of Gordon’s analysis? And should Frieda cancel her dinner date with him?
Actually Gordon, normally technically very sound, was wrong on this occasion. Unable to sleep that night Frieda worked out that Gordon’s line was decidedly inferior because it may require three cards (two clubs and a spade) to be ruffed in dummy. If North captures the ♣K and then leads trumps declarer is trapped in dummy before trumps can be drawn and the opponents may be able to engineer a spade ruff of their own. Bridling inwardly at Gordon’s high-handedness she sent Gordon a curt note.
Her own line – in her humble opinion far better – had been to win the opening lead in hand and immediately play a diamond hoping the diamond honours would split. South won the ♦A and returned a trump which Frieda won in dummy. She entered her hand with another trump and played another diamond. As hoped for North rose with the ♦K and continued with the third round of trumps. But now Frieda could take the marked spade finesse, cash a diamond for a club discard, and play a club. The rest was plain-sailing.
As Frieda drifted off to sleep she wondered if she had been rather too harsh on Gordon.
The next day Gordon was feeling rather miserable. Frieda had cancelled their dinner date on the grounds that Gordon had not been sufficiently appreciative of Frieda’s play. Things had been going quite well until then, and Gordon had developed a fondness for Frieda that had quite surprised him. He resolved to be more appreciative of Frieda’s talents (the bridge ones). He soon had an opportunity when he was dummy and Frieda was declarer (West) in 3NT. North, who had opened 1♠, led ♠4. Frieda was looking at:
| West (Frieda) | East (Gordon) |
| ♠AQT2 | ♠765 |
| ♥KQ5 | ♥J32 |
| ♦AQ9876 | ♦JT2 |
| ♣— | ♣A876 |
Somewhat to Gordon’s surprise, when South played ♠9, Frieda played ♠A! But it seemed to work out well. Frieda played a small diamond losing to North who, naturally believing his partner had ♠Q, continued with another small spade and was surprised when Frieda showed up with that card. Frieda then knocked out ♥A and was home with two spade tricks, 5 diamonds and two hearts.
Gordon was full of genuine admiration. “That was brilliant, Frieda” he enthused. “If you had won the opening lead cheaply, it would have been easy for North to find the club switch when winning the ♦K”.
Laying it on even more thickly he continued “You obviously worked out that South was marked with at least one club honour or the lead would have been different; therefore it was overwhelmingly likely that North would be deceived”.
Frieda gave him a warm smile (not confessing she had pulled the wrong card). “Oh, Gordon, would you like to come to dinner on Saturday after all?”
Bridge Romances 
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