E/W Vul
IMPs
Dealer: East
Lead: 
K
xarman K 7 3 10 8 6 J 10 3 J 10 8 4 |
||
| icerock A Q J 9 4 A 9 2 A Q 8 6 Q |
![[W - E]](http://gee.aaronhaspel.com/files/2012/10/t.gif) |
pq2 10 8 6 5 2 7 5 4 5 K 6 5 3 |
| Maestro — K Q J 3 K 9 7 4 2 A 9 7 2 |
| West
Dbl |
North
Pass |
East Pass 1 Pass |
South 1 Pass Pass |
Mystic bridge visions are not confined to the players.
Today E/W reach 4S after a quasi-normal auction. Gee, South, should double East’s 1S bid for takeout, but the final contract will be the same.
The spade game needs only the SK onside, and even on the actual layout it is cold on anything but a heart lead. A heart, however, is the obvious choice with Gee’s hand, and he leads one.
As declarer ponders his line, a veteran Gee-spec, who modestly prefers anonymity, suggests ducking, “to give Gee a chance to cash the CA.” The other specs scoff — “no way he’s gonna do that,” “nobody could be that stupid”: but they scoffed at Edison, they scoffed at Fulton…
Declarer ducks the heart, North playing the 8 to show an odd count. (This must be three. If declarer had one he would have no reason to duck: if he had five, the bidding would be strange and a duck would be too dangerous.) Gee cashes the CA and shifts to a low diamond. Declarer rises with the ace, ruffs a diamond, and cashes the CK discarding a heart loser. He loses the trump finesse, wins the trump return, ruffs his last two diamonds and claims.
“Just give the cards a chance and see what happens” was sage advice given to me by an 83 year old lady bridge player. And of course we have all heard the advice, “Give him a little rope to hang himself.” This hand, like so many others from the Gee Chronicles, exemplifies how useful such simple advice can be. While they may be more fun and intricate, why bother with squeeze plays or strip and end plays when declaring hands against Gee just because you are missing a top trick to bring home your contract? I propose adopting the “Declarer’s Corollary to the Bones Principle.” “Just give the cards a chance and see what happens by giving Gerard a little rope to hang himself. This is frequently a winning strategy for declarer.”