The Washington Post - 24.02.2020

C6 EZRE the washington post.monday, february 24 , 2020

BREWSTER ROCKIT: SPACE GUY! TIM RICKARD

CURTIS RAY BILLINGSLEY

SHERMAN’S LAGOON JIM TOOMEY

RED AND ROVER BRIAN BASSET

FRANK AND ERNEST TOM THAVES

RHYMES WITH ORANGE HILARY PRICE

LIO MARK TATULLI

HAGAR THE HORRIBLE CHRIS BROWNE

BLONDIE DEAN YOUNG & JOHN MARSHALL

MIKE DU JOUR MIKE LESTER

AGNES TONY COCHRAN

WUMO MIKAEL WULFF & ANDERS MORGENTHALER

MARK TRAIL JAMES ALLEN

MOTHER GOOSE & GRIMM MIKE PETERS

BALDO HECTOR CANTU & CARLOS CASTELLANOS

SALLY FORTH FRANCESCO MARCIULIANO & JIM KEEFE

CLASSIC PEANUTS CHARLES SCHULZ

CLASSIC DOONESBURY GARRY TRUDEAU PICKLES BRIAN CRANE

SUDOKU

NORTH (D)

♠ A K 5 2

♥ A Q 10 5 2

♦ 5

♣ A K 3

WEST

♠ J 4

♥ J 7

♦ 6 3 2

♣ Q 10 8 7 6 4

EAST

♠ Q 10 8 3

♥ K 9 8 6

♦ A 9 7

♣ J 5

SOUTH

♠ 9 7 6

♥ 4 3

♦ K Q J 10 8 4

♣ 9 2

The bidding:

A

team led by Josef Blass

(npc) won the Soloway

Knockout Te ams, the ACBL

Fall NABC’s major event.

In the final BLASS (Brink,

Drijver, Kalita, Nowosadzki,

Pszczola) came from behind

to beat Nick NICKELL, 123

to 102. As usual, most of

the top seeds included pro

players.

In today’s deal,

Meckstroth-Rodwell bid the

North-South cards to a poor

3NT, an atypical performance

for them. North went down

one.

In the replay, Brink-Drijver

reached five diamonds.

West led the jack of spades,

dummy won and East sig-

naled with the eight. South

forced out the ace of trumps,

and East returned the queen

of spades to dummy’s ace.

South then took the A-K

of clubs, ruffed a club and

drew trumps. He led the nine

of spades to East’s 10 —

and dummy’s five was high!

Making five.

East regretted spending

his eight of spades, but

South could always guess his

way home. He could run his

trumps, forcing East to come

down to a high spade and

K-9 of hearts. Then a spade

would end-play him.

DAILY QUESTION

You hold:

♠ A K 5 2 ♥ A Q 10 5 2

♦ 5 ♣ A K 3

You open one heart, and

your partner bids one spade.

What do you say?

ANSWER: Slam chances

depend on whether partner

has useful cards such as the

king of hearts and the ace of

diamonds (but not the king)

plus decent spades. Jump

to three clubs and support

the spades next, painting a

picture of your shape and

strength. An option is a four-

club “splinter” bid; I might

prefer that call with a weaker

hand.

N-S VULNERABLE

NORTH EAST SOUTH WEST

1 ♥ Pass 1 NT Pass

2 ♣ Pass 3 ♦ Pass

5 ♦ All Pass

Opening lead — ♠ J

BRIDGE

©2020, TRIBUNE CONTENT AGENCY, LLC.

— Frank Stewart