(Curious Symmetry,, continued from page 191)

seats.  Now we can play a pristine 7ª without any tawdry numbers.

                     North
                    ª A Q J 9 7 4 3
                    © A K Q J 6 2
                    ¨
                    §
West                              East
ª 2                                 ª
© 10 9 7 5 4 3                 © 8
¨                                    ¨ 10 8 6 5 3
§ 10 9 8 6 4 3                 § A K Q J 7 5 2

                     South
                    ª K 10 8 6 5
                     ©
                     ¨ A K Q J 9 7 4 2
                     §
It seems a shame that that East/West are gin for 6§. Wait a minute, that's not fair. Let's shift gears again. Mr. East and the new Mr. South please change places. That's better. East/West can now make 7¨. However, North/South would score up 7©.

          North
              ª A Q J 9 7 4 3
              © A K Q J 6 2
              ¨
              §

West                                East
ª K 10 8 6 5                    ª
©                                      © 8
¨ A K Q J 9 7 4 2            ¨ 10 8 6 5 3
§                                      § A K Q J 7 5 2

                  South
                 ª 2
                 © 10 9 7 5 4 3
                 ¨
                 § 10 9 8 6 4 3

All in all, a thoroughly joyless collection for East/West. What do you do as East on the actual hand? Is North running, funning, or does he have wood?  Is this suggesting a spade lead against an East/West contract and a stop along the way to the club sacrifice? And where's the heart suit?  Partner is known to have a heart suit, which may have been frozen out by the preempt. He may have useful points there and other distributional virtues, such as a spade void. Most of the respondents to our informal survey refused to be pushed around in this manner and pulled out the 6¨ card. Doublers were few. One feared that the double would be take-out. 

If you decide to stay fixed and apply the double, North might run to 6©. Now your partner faces the prospect of defending against opponents who insist on playing high-level contracts in his six-card suits. He may take some joy from this hand, after all. Then we can leave it to North to thank South for trashing his 13 major suit card behemoth. However, most of us would still be bidding with North's hand; and North

(Continued on page 193)

Your future depends on many things, but mostly on you.

Frank Tyger