Bridge: Oct. 1, 2023

My friend the English professor picks his words carefully — as if he were wielding a pair of tweezers.

“People are so careless with word usage,” he complained to me in the club lounge. “Today, one of my students insisted that it didn’t matter whether someone `played bad’ or `played badly.'”

“How did you respond to that?”

“I asked him, when a pretty girl walked by, whether it mattered if he looked at her stern or sternly.”

I don’t suppose today’s declarer played bad or badly, but he didn’t make his contract. After South boldly accepted North’s invitational raise to 2NT, West led the five of spades, and South put up dummy’s jack as his only chance to win the first trick. When East’s queen covered, South played low, ducked the spade return and won the third spade.

South then needed to set up four club tricks without letting West get in to cash his two good spades; South needed to find East with K-x. (If East had a club holding such as K-10-9, the defense could come to two spades, two clubs and a diamond.) So declarer proceeded to cash his ace of clubs.

Unfortunately for him, West followed with the jack, and East dumped his king of clubs under the ace. Then West won a club trick, and South went down one.

South’s play wasn’t quite goodly. He should lead a heart to dummy at Trick Four and return a low club. If East plays low, South takes the ace and plays low from dummy on the next club. If instead East puts up the king on the first club, South plays low from his hand effectively.

South dealer

N-S vulnerable

NORTH

S J 7

H K Q 4 3

D A 10 5 4

C Q 6 5

WEST

S K 10 6 5 3

H 7 6

D K 7 2

C J 10 9

EAST

S Q 8 4

H J 10 9 5

D Q 9 8 3

C K 8

SOUTH

S A 9 2

H A 8 2

D J 6

C A 7 4 3 2

South West North East
1 C Pass 1 D Pass
1 NT Pass 2 NT Pass
3 NT All Pass
Opening lead — S 5

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