Judge — December 1936 — page 39: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

BRIDGE BY GEORGE COFFIN WHILE THE clement of luck the less skilful bridge players into lures money play with good temporary re. sults, skill is always well rewarded in the long run. However, we knew of ick gauge to test a player's skill until we ran across a unique hand recently @43 43 J104 &OW9743 1 @ 982 | QJ 1092 ys K2 L> @K32 Dealer AKO PASO L986 Aso South | West | North | East iNT 2NT 3 NT Opening le. Queen of spades. For a rating of skill every candi- iven the above without the East and West hands. South wins the spade opening with the king. n the date is How would you f play? Before reading further, try it yourself and see how you rate on the bridge ladder. The dribs cashed five top card tricks, and took no more. The fair players ran the ace then jack of clubs, but the clubs didn’t fall 2-2, and East held up the king of clubs. Result: six tricks. The good players led a low club to dummy’s ten hoping to coax out the king tactfully, but East knew his strategy id fet the ten win. To insure three b tricks the dummy led the queen of I clubs, and East covered with the king to get the lead off the table. Result: seven tricks. The very good players also led a low club to dummy’s ten, and finessed the jack of diamonds. East refused to cover hoping to kill the ten as a possible entry for dummy’s clubs, and West held up the queen of diamonds for the same reason, and the jack won! The dummy kept right on with diamonds to lose the lead, and South was held to only S two club tricks. Result: cight tricks. The experts led the jack of clubs overtaking it with the queen which won! They finessed the jack of diamonds which won, and then finessed the ten of clubs through East's king making the third vital club trick for concluding the attack in diamonds. The master players like the experts overtook the jack of clubs with dummy’s queen, but the masters finessed the ten of clubs smmeds. ely. They then switched to the jack of diamonds which East and South covered, and, after cashing the ace of clubs to clear that suit, the master players found it easy to reenter dummy in diamonds and to run three more club tricks winning twelve tricks in all. Of course, if East and West refuse to cover the jack of diamonds, they hold | the master players down to nine tricks. The point is, the expert's timing has no | chance to win all twelve tricks if East covers the jack of diamonds. But we let them find that out for themselves, after. | \ i wards! Last Month's Problem @ None 9 104 Q 10 &KIG6S #9 Js 87 ae @ 1073 Q65 None &J10 Hearts are trumps and South leads to win tricks. South plays the queen of hearts, North trumps a low spade, and South discards two clubs on North's good diamonds seven South trumps , and throws West in the lead a low clu me before | with a trump to make him lead into North's club tenace. If West plays the jack of hearts to the first trick, North wins the second trick with the ten of hearts, South discards two clubs on the diamonds and trumps a low club, and throws West in with a low spade to make him lead to North’s club tenace, and if East overtakes the spade trick, East has to lead to South’s | spade tenace. False solution: If North trumps a spade at the first trick, West exits in trumps blocking the problem. TIME and distance may pre- vent your being there in person. But you can always be there by telephone, witha warm and friendly greeting. For across the miles your voice is you! It’s easy to do and it can mean so much. A few words —thoughtful, kindly, reas- suring—may gladden a day or a life. Somewhere today —perhaps this very hour—some one is wishing you'd call, BELL TELEPHONE SYSTEM comicbooks.com