Sylvia never did like duplicate bridge. What she enjoyed most was playing rubber bridge with the experts at the club, even though she realized she was outclassed.
She felt that the level of skill in the duplicate game did not present her with as much of a challenge — not to mention the chance to improve her game — as did the experts' rubber-bridge game.
This deal occurred on a night when Sylvia made one of her rare appearances at the club duplicate. At each of the 12 tables, South became declarer at three no-trump.
At 11 tables, South made four no-trump after a spade was led to the king and East returned the jack. Declarer ducked and later finished with 10 tricks after losing a diamond finesse to East.
But at Sylvia's table, South went down two. West led a spade, and Sylvia (East) played the jack instead of the king! South did not dare refuse to take the jack, since it appeared certain that West had the A-K. So he won with the queen and staked his all on the diamond finesse.
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Unfortunately, the finesse failed. Sylvia won the ten with the king and returned the king of spades. West overtook with the ace and cashed his spades, and declarer wound up down two.
There was not much point to asking Sylvia to explain her jack play, because everyone knew how reluctant she always was to part with a king. In fact, had anyone asked, Sylvia no doubt would have been surprised to learn that any play other than the jack could even be contemplated.
