“How long should a deal take to play?” a reader asks, citing today's deal “My partner was South. He bid his hand, let us say, deliberately, and then played the slam like a herd of turtles stampeding through peanut butter.”

South thought for a long time before bidding six spades. West led a trump, and South won with dummy’s king. He consulted the floor and the ceiling and finally took the ace of hearts, ruffed a heart and drew trumps — leaving him with none. When he cashed the ace, king and queen of clubs next, West discarded. Then if South conceded the fourth club to set up dummy’s fifth club, the defense would cash hearts. So South took the A-K of diamonds and conceded down one.

“The postmortem took as long as the play”my reader says. “My partner said he succeeds if either trumps or clubs broke 3-3 or 4-2. I was too frazzled to argue.”

In most tournaments, about eight minutes are allowed per deal, and I suppose that would be reasonable in casual, social games. But some deals require more time than others; I wouldn’t begrudge a player extra time to cope with a tough contract.

South makes six spades with astute play. After he takes the king of trumps, he plays a low club from both hands. If West leads a second trump, South wins, takes the ace of hearts, ruffs a heart, comes to his ace of clubs and draws trumps. He can reach dummy with a high diamond to run the clubs, winning four trumps in his hand, a heart, a heart ruff, two diamonds and four clubs.

South dealer

N-S vulnerable

Tribune Content Agency