Ellensburg Daily Record – 24 Ago 1956
“Everybody pulls a wrong card now and then,” said Mr. Muzzy hotly, when he thought the kibitzers were criticizing him for his hand. Actually, they were praising him, because his play was amazingly good and resulted in defeating the contract by three tricks.
South dealer North/South vulnerable
Mr. Dale opened his fourth best heart, the seven. Dummy’s king won and Mr. Muzzy, intending to play the nine, carelessly dropped the jack. If he had been “careful” and played the nine, Mr. Champion could have made his contract, probably with an overtrick. See how this works out.
Mr. Champion, in order to take as many as nine tricks, must set up his clubs. Therefore Mr. Muzzy is bound to gain the lead with the ace of that suit. Now, if he has saved his jack of hearts, he will lead that card. But Mr. Champion would merely play low and let the jack win, after which Mr. Muzzy would be out of the suit.
There would be no point in Mr. Dale overtaking with the ace this last entry because that would set up the queen in the closed hand.
Actual Play
As the deal was actually played, Mr. Champion led the queen of diamonds from dummy at trick 2 and finessed it. When this held, he shifted to a club, which he won with the 10. But when the king of clubs was led next, Mr. Muzzy pounced on it with the ace and returned the nine of hearts. Mr. Champion played low and Mr. Dale overtook the 10 and ran the entire suit. A player like Mr. Masters would have played the jack of hearts at trick 1, too. But he would have known what he was doing. Let’s follow his type of reasoning.
Mr. Dale had led the seven of hearts. Using the rule of 11 we deduct seven from 11 and get four which represents the number of hearts higher than the seven outside of Mr. Dale’s hand. Mr. Masters would have seen three of these in his own hand and dummy. Therefore, Mr. Champion would be known to have only one heart higher than the seven. If that card were the ace, it would make no difference which card was played from the East hand. But if it were the queen, it made a lot of difference.
Much To Gain
So, with nothing to lose and much to gain, Mr. Masters would have played the jack of hearts at his first chance. Let this be a lesson to you Champion, not to bid those shaky no trump games when I’m on the defense,” kidded Mr. Muzzy after the jack of hearts play had been explained to him.
“Don’t try to take any credit,” snapped Mr. Champion. “You admitted at the time that you played the jack by mistake.”
“No, no,” Mr. Muzzy replied. “I just did that to irritate you.”
And in this respect Mr. Muzzy was, as usual, eminently successful.