The Cardturner (34 page)

It looked easy. I could win one spade trick, three heart tricks, and six diamond tricks. That's ten tricks right there. And I might even get some club tricks.

"Thank you, partner," I said, then told Toni to play the four of spades.

The next person played the
Q, and I was just about to play my ace, when I suddenly realized it wasn't going to be as easy as I had first thought. I had a serious transportation problem.

My ace of spades was the only entry to my hand. All my other suits were blocked!

If I'd played the ace of spades immediately, I'd have won that trick. I could then have won the next three tricks in dummy, with its three red cards. But then I would have had no transportation to my hand to play the rest of my good hearts and diamonds. I'd have been forced to lead a black card from dummy. The defenders would have been able to take two club tricks and at least three spade tricks, setting the contract.

I stared at the cards in disbelief. I had all these high cards and no way to use them. Strange, but the dummy would have been a lot better if it had had the two of diamonds instead of the queen of clubs.

I have this rule. If you can see that plan A won't work, don't do it, even if you don't have a plan B.

I suppose experts always have a plan B, and even a plan C, but my rule had worked pretty well when I played in the side game.

Since I knew playing the
A wouldn't work, I ducked. I played the
8.

The opponents won the first trick. I could only let them win three more.

My other opponent was on-lead, and he set down the
K.

Again, playing the
A wouldn't work, so following Alton's rule, I ducked, playing the
10.

They'd won the first two tricks.

My best hope was that my opponent would now lead a red card. I suppose that was my plan B.

No luck. He led the
3.

This was what I had left.

My ace of spades was my last spade, so I had to play it. The guy on my left played the
7, and I was just about to discard the
2 from dummy, when I suddenly spotted my plan C.

Since I had no transportation to get from the dummy to my hand, I just had to make sure that the dummy hand never won a trick. And that meant discarding the ace of hearts!

"Ace of hearts," I said.

A look of surprise came across Toni's face, but dummy has no choice in the matter. She discarded the
A.

I was on-lead. I led the
K, and once again had to discard something from dummy. "Ace of diamonds," I
said, throwing away a second ace. Next I led the
Q and discarded the
K. I'd taken three tricks. I needed six more.