Tonight sees the annual Bridge Club Christmas party, brilliantly organised as always by Judy King and her gang of elves — they deliver a super evening every year!

Along with the food, drink and music there will be the usual fun Calcutta bridge event — 37 players have signed up for that and once the field is an even number each pair (randomly selected) will play three boards, with the highest four scorers going on to the final, which will be one board to decide the winner. All good fun and adds a lot of excitement to the night!

I covered this hand a few weeks ago and received a question about the play which was valid and observant.

I was playing on BBO, this was in the last round and I thought we needed something extra to finish on top — and then this little number (see Figure 1) appeared.

I opened a heart as South, partner jumped to four hearts and that is where the bidding ended — slam did enter my mind but it looked marginal and as you can see a club lead defeats it at trick one.

Many Wests led the two of spades and now 12 tricks were easy — draw trump, discard a club from dummy on the diamonds, give up a club and claim two overtricks.

I decided to take a different, and much more exciting, route in search for the pot of gold — it looks risky, but I didn’t think there was a real risk based on the opening lead.

I won West’s Queen with the Ace (important, as now both defenders might think/hope partner holds the King) and immediately played a diamond to the ten! When this held both clubs could go away on the diamonds for three overtricks and a clear top as no one bid the slam.

So, the reader asked why I did this when East could have had the Jack of diamonds and they could take a club trick, leaving me with 11 tricks when the rest of the room made 12.

The answer is that I was 100 per cent sure that after the opening lead, if East won the diamond he would return a spade — cashing the Ace of clubs would work but would be bizarre and leading a club towards the King was also unlikely. On a spade return, I would now make the same 12 tricks as everyone else.

Note that I did not draw trumps as it would allow one of the opponents to give suit preference and the defenders may work it all out — that should always be a thought if you can delay the drawing of trumps as defensive signals are getting more and more sophisticated.

Also important here is the mindset that allows you to back your judgment, make the exciting play, and be prepared to end up with egg on your face — if East had returned a club I would have hated it, but at the same time would have still derived some twisted satisfaction from the fact that I saw the ‘pot at the end of the rainbow’ play!

On this hand it all ended well...

• David Ezekiel can be reached at davidezekiel999@gmail.com

BRIDGE CLUB RESULTS

Friday, November 28

1 Tony Saunders/Patricia Siddle

2 Tracy Nash/Desmond Nash

3 Jane Smith/Caitlin Conyers

Monday, December 1

North/South

1 Richard Gray/Wendy Gray

2 Charles Hall/Tony Saunders

3 Peter Donnellan/Lynanne Bolton

East/West

1 Patricia Siddle/Diana Diel

2Judith Bussell/Stephanie Kyme

3 Sancia Garrison/Jane Smith

Tuesday, December 2

1 Desiree Woods/Elizabeth Caulfield

2 Jamie Sapsford/Jane Downing

3 Ian Boatmen/Muna Vallis

Wednesday, December 3

North/South

1 Peter Donnellan/Lynanne Bolton

2 Richard Gray/Wendy Gray

East/West

1 Gertrude Barker/Jane Smith

2 Patricia Siddle/Diana Diel

Thursday, December 4

1 John F W Glynn/Rachael Gosling

2 Claude Guay/Sharon Shanahan

3 Erika Jones/Margaret Way