Solution to the Hand of the Month 

(See problem on page 7) 

Í A987 

Ì QJ5 

Ë AKQ 

Ê AQ10 

Í QJ10    Í K6532 

Ì A1087    Ì void 

Ë 832    Ë J1096 

Ê 952    Ê 7643 

Í 4 

Ì K96432 

Ë 754 

Ê KJ8 

The skills Agatha used to bring home her contract involved what experts call a “trump reduction play,” combined with a nifty ju jitsu-like move in the endgame: She won ÍA and ruffed a spade, led a trump to dummy (of course West ducked), then ruffed another spade. These two ruffs were absolutely necessary to reduce her hand to the same number of trumps as her LHO, to later set up an endplay. Now she simply crossed her fingers and played off the six winners in the minors, hoping that West would not be able to ruff in. 

Ending in the dummy, this left the following position: 

Í 9 

Ì J5 

Ë —- 

Ê —- 

Í —-    Í K 

Ì A108    Ì void 

Ë —-    Ë  J 

Ê —-    Ê 7 

Í —- 

Ì K96 

Ë —- 

Ê —- 

At this point Agatha made the key play of ruffing dummy’s last spade with her ÌK(!), and West was flipped on his backside, his smirk totally erased. If he underruffed, the only loser would be the trump ace. But overruffing with the ace would leave him on lead at trick 12, forced to play away from his 10-8 combination into the split tenace of J-5 opposite 9-6. Sayanora! 

If you missed this play when you were doing your analysis, cheer up: there’s no need to be depressed about it. But a change of pace might make you feel better. Perhaps you should go out and get your hair dyed blue!