Lack of Tempo

West leads the ♦3. south wins the ♦A. At trick two south leads a spade from dummy, East plays low, and south’s ♠Q drives out West’s ♠K. At trick three West plays the ♦2, West has led either a five-card diamond suit or a doubleton. If West has led from a doubleton, the hand cannot be made as there are four losers; two spades, one heart and one diamond. Since the hand cannot be made if West has two diamonds, south should play West for five diamonds and insert the ♦9. East will ruff, but would lack a tempo to set up a heart winner. If East returns a heart, south can win, knock out East’s trump ace, win the heart return and lead a diamond to the ♦J to pitch his losing heart. 

A husband invites three friends over to play bridge. Throughout the evening he keeps pestering his wife: “Honey, could you bring us some drinks?”, “Some sandwiches would be nice, dear”, “Have we any cake?” and so on. After his friends leave, he finds his wife in the kitchen cleaning up. “You look busy,” he says, “Can I give you a hand?” “That would be great” she says. “Okay, you have got 5 spades to ace, KQJ and another heart, 4 clubs…..!” 

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