Entertainment

Bridge

“the man made a horrible play,” Unlucky Louie grumbled, “but so what? Lady Luck is on his side.”

Louie was moaning about the player we call Harlow the Halo. While bad luck shadows Louie like a thundercloud, good luck shines in Harlow’s face like good health. His finesses seldom lose and his errors never cost.

In a team match, both Louie and Harlow played four hearts after East bid spades. West led his singleton spade, and East took the ace and returned the queen.

Louie correctly played low, and played low again when East led a third spade. West ruffed up with the eight of trumps and led a diamond, but Louie was safe. He took the ace, drew trumps and got to dummy with the ace of clubs to pitch his club loser on the king of diamonds. The king of spades won his 10th trick.

At the other table, Harlow blithely offered his king on the second spade — a play that deserved to lose the contract. West ruffed and led the king of clubs, but Harlow remained confident. He played low from dummy, and West shifted to a diamond. Harlow took the A-K of diamonds, pitching a spade, ruffed a diamond and ran his trumps.

On the last trump, West could keep two cards. He had to save the nine of diamonds since dummy still had a diamond; hence West bared his queen of clubs. Dummy threw the diamond and won the last two tricks with the ace and nine of clubs.

“He did it to me again,” Louie sighed. Harlow was as lucky as usual. Not even a diamond shift at Trick Three would beat four hearts.