WHAT A MUPPET JOHNNY IS............................................( Article by Bigot-Johnson ) Joy upon joy....Bigot 1 Johnny Supremo O.....yes, finally I've managed to stick one on him.....or should I say my novice partner did. The crucial board that won us the club championship pairs was when my partner played in 4H against Johnny. As dummy, my hand was xx....AQJ....AKxx....A108x, opposite my partner's xx....Kxxxx....J109x...Q9. Normally, novice partners like him see 10 tricks by way of 1C, 5H, and 4D, should either the diamond finesse work or there's a stiff queen around. But no he didn't go straight for the finesse, because he had been reading Johnny's blogs on how to look for extra chances before resorting to such a speculative option. The opponents kicked off by taking the first two spade tricks, before switching to a heart which was taken in dummy. So partner decided to clear hearts first ending up in hand. Unbelievably, he had spotted a superior line of play, by electing to go for clubs. If West held the king, he would be obliged to cover the queen ( Ace from dummy ), leaving the nine to force out the jack. Then dummy's two established clubs would neatly get rid of two diamonds, for no losers in that suit. If the queen of clubs lost to the king in the East hand, then there's still a remote chance the jack might fall under the Ace ( if it started out as a doubleton ). Since the king of clubs was with West, the doomed diamond finesse was never taken, and partner rolled in 10 tricks by way of 5H, 2D, and 3C. Johnny had been hoisted on his own petard. What a muppet..........