There have been three dreadful films called Find the Lady, all purporting to be comedies. Oddly 20 years apart and, mercifully, none since 1976., The first two were British, in 1936 starring Jack Melford and in 1956 starring Donald Houston. Then there was a US film in 1976 starring John Candy. Don't check them out!
I hope they will not bother to release another one in 2026 and I think I would prefer to watch the Find the Lady scam, also known as the Three-Card Monte. At least that has some clever sleight of hand.
No subterfuge was needed by Dave Harrison playing in his first Woodberry duplicate tonight. A little bit of logical thinking increased his chances of finding the lady:
EW had an "ABBA" sequence to the reasonable game, which most people play as forcing. An ABBA sequence is where you revert to the first suit, as here with 1H-2C-3C-3H. So East was forced to bid game with 4H. This looked bleak when South led the jack of spades. Declarer covered but North won and continued with two more rounds of spades, East ruffing. Now, declarer needs to find the lady, the queen of trumps, as well as to hope for a favourable club lie. Dave did well to play a heart to the nine, as he needs North to have the ace of clubs. As a result there is one more available space for South to have which makes South slightly more likely to have "Dronningen" - the original title of the 2019 film Queen of Hearts. About five percent more. But if you always take the better chance you will come out on top at the end. On this occasion, the queen was with South and the game made. And Dave was the only declarer to bring it home. Sometimes you just have to go with your feel. One billionaire might agree:
Percentage margins don't matter - Jeff Bezos
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