Voluptua gazed dreamily at Randy. He had just laid down a rather bare dummy and she had the task of making 4♥ as South. But her thoughts were far away from bridge. Randy was looking like a delicious Adonis with his broad shoulders producing very fond feelings in her. Then pulling herself together with a jerk she concentrated on the task at hand, noting that West had led ♥J. This was the deal but, of course, all Voluptua could see was the North–South hands.
| ♠83 ♥A92 ♦JT52 ♣KQT3 | ||
| ♠AQ96 ♥JT6 ♦K764 ♣92 | ♠J75 ♥Q6 ♦Q983 ♣8765 | |
| ♠KT42 ♥K7543 ♦A ♣AJ4 |
She counted her winners: 4 clubs, 1 diamond, probably 4 hearts – only 9 tricks. Where was the 10th trick going to come from? There were several possibilities. She might lead up to ♠K hoping that East held ♠A; or she might try to ruff a spade in dummy. The first of these was a 50% chance; the second seemed doomed to failure by the trump lead for surely the opponents would lead trumps twice more if she lost two spades.
Her forehead furrowed but then her attention began to wander again. She smiled as she remembered how that week Randy had reversed Frieda’s car into the garden hedge; what a dummy he had been reversing like that without looking.
And then it came to her: dummy reversal. All that needed was a 3–2 break in trumps. So she won the opening lead with ♥K, cashed ♦A, and drew a second round of trumps ending in dummy. She then left the outstanding trump out and turned her efforts to another suit. She was able to ruff three diamonds in her own hand, using the clubs as re-entries to dummy (her winners in this strategy were diamond ruff, ♣K, diamond ruff, ♣A, ♣Q, ♣T, diamond ruff). It would not matter if West ruffed one of her club winners for that would promote a trump trick in dummy.
Flushed with pleasure Voluptua made her contract. As Randy praised her efforts she smiled coyly and said “You were an inspirational dummy”. Immediately she wished she said “ymmud” instead but that would have been too hard to pronounce.
In fact the hand helped to build up her confidence for her thoughts had been a bit distracted of late and this had shown itself in rather lack-lustre bidding. Randy had been quite severe with her the week before. “Really, Voluptua, your bidding has been so timid tonight”.
Voluptua had been rather hurt by this remark and had resolved to teach Randy a lesson. So, when her boyfriend (South) opened with a weak 2♠ and East doubled, Voluptua steeled herself. Surely the opponents could make a slam in either minor, possibly even a grand slam. What had Randy called her? Timid? She would show him and with a bold pencil wrote the bid 7♠ on her bidding pad. East doubled, almost breaking the pencil with some unethical pressure, and Randy had to play 7♠ doubled.
West had no trouble finding a lead and placed the ♥A on the table. Voluptua tabled her hand and smiled sweetly and innocently at Randy: “Good luck, partner” she murmured. Randy’s face paled as he realised that there were 35 HCP out against him. But squaring those manly shoulders he went to the task.
| ♠J9652 ♥T9765432 ♦— ♣— | ||
| ♠Q ♥AKQJ ♦QJT7 ♣JT82 | ♠K ♥8 ♦AK32 ♣AKQ9762 | |
| ♠AT8743 ♥— ♦98654 ♣43 |
He ruffed the lead in his own hand and drew trumps in one round. Then, entering dummy with three minor suit ruffs, he ruffed three further rounds of hearts. Dummy remained with 4 winning hearts and one trump and so could be entered by another minor suit ruff. To everyone’s astonishment, his own included, he had made the contract. “That’s going to be worth a bit tonight” he thought to himself as he folded his cards.
Randy had been lucky in that, if West leads any other suit, the contract will be two down as dummy would not have sufficient entries to establish the hearts.
Bridge Romances 
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