From the desk of Bob Jones:

ESTHER’S BIRTHDAY

April 6, 2012

Hi All,

Yesterday was Esther’s birthday and she asked her husband Fred to play with her at Jourdan’s. Fred has become a bit forgetful as he gets on in years but he still enjoys the occasional game. Here was board #14:

* Fred forgot that he doubled on the previous round!

East led the AS and shifted to the 8C. Esther went into deep thought. ‘Oh dear, if I take this club finesse I might go down at trick two and Fred will never play with me again. I better play the Ace and hope something lucky happens later. That’s usually how I play slam hands anyway.’

Esther won the AC and led a trump to her hand. She ruffed a spade, played another trump to her hand and ruffed her last spade high. Dummy’s last trump was played back to her hand and she ran all of her trumps saying a prayer on every card. She came down to this position:

West still had to make a discard. In desperation, he pitched the King of clubs. Esther, with a squeal of birthday delight, cashed the Queen of clubs and claimed the last two tricks with the Ace and King of diamonds. Note that it would not have helped West to discard a diamond. The slam would still have made, perhaps without the squeal.

After the opponents left the table, Esther said to Fred: ‘I can’t imagine why that nice man pitched the King of clubs. Do you think he knew it was my birthday?’

Happy Holidays from the staff at Jourdan’s!