Ludington Daily News – 12 Feb 2005
Actress Uta Hagen wrote, —Talent is an amalgam of high sensitivity; easy vulnerability; high sensory equipment (seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, tasting — intensely).”
That applies to top bridge players as well. In particular, one needs a good sense of smell to sniff out which opponent has, what key cards. Sabine Auken, is one of the best at working out who has what — as she did in this six-heart contract from the match against Croatia.
Lead: 5
After South’s opening bid, North artificially asked a lot of questions. South showed good hearts, no singleton or void, and three key cards (two aces and the heart king, or three aces). Declarer won the first five tricks with dummy’s major-suit honors, discarding a diamond from hand. Then, a club to the ace was followed by an avalanche of trumps, bringing everyone down to three cards. South had the diamond jack and two clubs. North held the diamond king and club king-jack. And East did well, blanking the club queen and keeping two diamonds.
What now, A club finesse? A diamond to the king for a possible endplay? Auken’s olfactory organ was confident that, West would have led the diamond ace if she had had it. And West also smelled of major-suit cards, making East a favorite to hold the club queen. Backing her judgment. declarer led a club to dummy’s king, dropping the queen to make her slam. Brilliant!!!