The jack of hearts has achieved immortal fame. He was a notorious kleptomaniac in a children's nursey rhyme with a penchant for sweet treats and suffered a beating from the king as a result. More recently he featured in Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts by Bob Dylan, a song also popularised by Joan Baez.
Bob Dylan - Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts (Official Audio) - YouTube
The last four lines are classic:
Lily had already taken all of the dye out of her hair.
She was thinkin' 'bout her father, who she very rarely saw
Thinkin' 'bout Rosemary and thinkin' about the law.
But, most of all she was thinkin' 'bout the Jack of Hearts.
Shelley Shieff and Raoul Fishman were thinkin' 'bout the jack of hearts on the following hand, and both got it right to have a joint top.
Raoul had a diamond lead and won with the ace, ruffed a diamond and drew trumps. Then he played a heart to the king after which he could not go wrong. This was not the best line however, and Shelley did better, ruffing the diamond lead, drawing trumps, cashing the ace of diamonds, pitching a club and then the ace and king of clubs and now playing a heart to the queen. East won and exited with a heart, but she reasoned, correctly, that with the AJx of hearts and KQxxxxx of diamonds East might well open 1D, so she dropped the jack of hearts. I was East and should have given her a harder time by ducking the queen of hearts, and ducking the ten of hearts if it is led from dummy. Now Shelly would have had a losing line of playing me for Jxx of hearts. As Lasker said, once you find a good move, look for a better one.
Fortunately I wasn't put to the test on this one, after:
ReplyDelete3D 3S 5D 6S, P P 7D X. An interesting 7D by Richard.
We took it 5 off as DF suggests for +1100, less than the +1430 for 6S.
The West hand is an interesting tactical problem (for me anyway). I bid 5D too and North only bid 5S so I left it there. Declarer got the hearts right (it didn't help that the robot discarded one on the trumps!). I think sacrificing in 7D is wrong based on the Woolsey principle. I.e to sacrifice you should be pretty certain of two of the following conditions
ReplyDelete1) The sacrifice will cost less than game/slam
2) The majority of the field will bid the game/slam
3) The majority of the field with make the game/slam
Here only condition 1) is a given.
FWIW I think the North hand is worth 6D over 5D
Nigel passed after 3D-(3S) which looks wrong, and Andy jumped to 6S on the North hand. The extra room did not seem to help, but it might have done on another layout.
ReplyDeleteAgreed passing doesn't look a great idea as it allowed a 5D exclusion bid (if you play it) which would get to 7 if the red aces were switched
ReplyDelete