St. Louis Blues

The St. Louis Blues are a hockey team in the NHL. They are doing well (17-12) for the season.

I got the blues while playing bridge in St. Louis. How come you asked? Well it went like this, played the first day of the Mixed Pair, qualified for the Compact the next day. The we qualified for the sand box Swiss aka the loser Swiss in the evening.

We played bad and the opponents played well, not a formula for success.

Board 1. Dealer N. Non vulnerable.

Right out of the gate, Mike Cappelletti SR. fresh from winning the Silver Ribbon Pairs set the tone for our game.

He as South was in 4♠ 

The lead was the ♣ jack, king, eight and queen. ♠ ten, three, two won by partner’s king. ♣ ten, three, five won by the ace. Next he played ♥ king, two, three and five. ♥ eight, nine, queen and six. The trump ♠ nine from dummy, covered by the queen, ace and partner discarded the ♣ two. Exposed the bad trump break.

Mike now took a diamond finesse, ♦ two, nine, ten, I won with the king.

I was end played. A trump return would give up a trump trick. A heart return was no better, He would win in dummy and pick up my trumps.

A diamond return would set up the whole diamond suit.

A club return would give him a ruff and sluff, discard a diamond in hand while ruffing in dummy. Then ace of hearts to discard another diamond. Ruff a heart back to hand to lead the lone diamond to dummy’s ace. At trick 12 he would be in dummy to trump coup me!

I gave him the newspaper play with a club.

Made 11 tricks for +450 and most of the match point.