CONTRACT BRIDGE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 235, 4 October 1935, Page 6

CONTRACT BRIDGE.

SAFETY FIRST.

(By ELY CULBERTSON.)

That the wily old fox of the bridge table, Mr. Sidney S. Lenz, lias not lost his cunning is attested to by hie play of the following hand in a Howell game in a prominent New York club recently.

Over East's opening bid of one club Mr. Lenz took, matters into his own hands, and, disdaining such trifles as cue bids and the like, bid six Spades, which was passed by West and North and, after considerable thought, also by East, who wistfully contemplated doubling but was probably too much in awe of his famous and ferocious adversary. When the dummy went down after West s opening lead of the Club Queen Mr. Lenz saw at a fiance that his contract was safe if the Diamonds broke three and two. But since the hallmark of an expert is to allow for bad breaks and to "take out insurance against them," ho proceeded to plan the play in sue 1 a way as to leave as little as possible to chance. Carefully ruffing the Club lead with a high trump, he put the dummy in the lead with the eight of trumps and led the Knave ot Hearts toward the closed hand. Easts duck at this point can hardly be criticised, since it was impossible for him to divine Mr. Lenz s insidious plot and thereby checkmate it. As a matter of fact, viewed from a strictly non-double-dummy angle, since East's singleton trump had been removed on the first lead to dummy and he therefore could not prevent a possible Heart ruff, it would have been a distinct error had lie played the Ace. After winning the trick in his own hand with the Queen of Hearts, Mr. Lenz proceeded to lead out every one of his trumps. East, in order to guard the Diamond suit and also retain the Heart Ace, was forced to discard all of his Clubs and a small Heart, so that when five cards were left in each hand his distribution was identical with that of Mr. Lenz's—namely, four Diamonds and the Ace of Hearts. Mr. Lenz now laid down the Ace and King of Diamonds, and when West failed to follow to the second Diamond, nonchalantly threw East into the lead with the Heart Aco and claimed the last two tricks. A very unusual typo of safety play, brilliantly conceived and perfectly executed. South dealer. North and South vulnerable.