CARD-READING DREAM Contract Bridge HAND by STEVE BECKER Here is a dream hand played once upon a time by Dorothy Hayden Truscott. She didn’t actually play the hand -- it occurred in one of her rare bridge dreams -- but it features a play the likes of which you’ve probably never seen. Mrs. Truscott held the East cards, and South got to five diamonds on the bidding shown. West led the king of spades and continued with the ace. South ruffed, played a heart to the king and tried a trump finesse, losing to West’s queen. Back came a second heart, on which declarer played dummy’s jack. He reasoned that playing the king and discarding one club wouldn’t help him a bit, because he had two small clubs to worry about, so one discard was virtually useless. South therefore finessed the jack, and Mrs. Truscott -- in her dream -- followed low. South discarded a club on the jack of hearts and then -- because he did not know that the clubs were so favorably divided, and naturally thought West had at least one more heart -- continued with the ace of hearts, on which he discarded his remaining small club. West ruffed, and declarer went down one. Of course, had Mrs. Truscott played her queen of hearts on dummy’s jack, as she surely would have had she been awake, South would have ruffed and made the contract by drawing trumps and playing the A-K of clubs. The moral of the story seems to be that it’s much easier to play good bridge when you’re asleep than when you’re awake!ded to put declarer to the test immediately. (c) 2014 King Features Synd., Inc. THE SAFE DISCARD by Elaine Sandberg In my last post I discussed the “hot” tile, defined as a tile that had not been discarded during the game or a tile that you determine an opponent needs for an Exposure or Mah Jongg— -a dangerous tile to discard. So now we’ll discuss the opposite of the dangerous discard—the safe discard, defined as a tile an opponent does not call or a tile an opponent cannot call. In the beginning of the game, 99.9% of the time, your discards are safe. Rarely does anyone call for an early discard because most hands are not solidly decided or the combinations are “uncallable”, needing other tiles to qualify for a “call”. So you can be fairly sure any discard is “safe”. And notice, even as the game is progressing, it’s not unusual that when a “new” tile is discarded and uncalled, the others discard the same tile in rapid s u c c e s s i o n , being assured the “new” tile is safe. But as the game progresses, how can you tell if a tile is safe? The answer is you must keep accurate track of the discards. For example, remembering no 8 Craks have been discarded, you can be almost sure a discard of an 8Crak is not safe. If there are 2 8Craks out, a third 8 Crak is more safe. If 3 8 Craks are out, a 4th is almost surely safe. But, here’s a caveat! Just because a tile is safe at the beginning of the game, doesn’t assure it will be safe later on in the game. A player may have waited for a specific tile to be repeatedly discarded before calling or have accumulated the necessary tiles to qualify to call and so what may have been a safe tile is no longer safe. It’s just one of the vagaries of Mah Jongg. The Exposure(s) of an opponent leads you discover that the hand requires a Pair, which can only be called for Mahj. Early on, discarding that tile is usually safe, because the opponent cannot call it. And once one of the Pair’s tiles is out, the possibility of others being discarded is great, because the first discard wasn’t called. But at the end of the game, as discussed in the “Hot Tile” blog, the only safe discard is the Joker. So pay close attention to the discards——and play it safe! Reprinted courtesy of the Jewish Journal of Los Angeles and Elaine Sandberg. Elaine is a mah-jongg instructor, who has taught the game for Holland American Cruise Lines and at American Jewish University, and the author of “A Beginner’s Guide to American Mah Jongg: How to Play the Game and Win” (Tuttle, $14.95). AMERICAN til next time... may the tiles be with you! North Shore Towers Courier n January 2015 25
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