The Jettison King - Bridge 223

At the conclusion of the last-held Crime Writers Association (CWA) Annual Bridge Tournament in May 2015, Dame Agatha Christy warned "In the not-too-distant future, we will need to attract television writers and screenwriters to join our ranks" she advised "and the designation 'crime' is too limiting. We will need to widen the scope of our constitution to include authors of all forms of mystery, other than just crime." When later asked to clarify her last remark, she gave as examples, the prolific and popular British author, Robert Goddard, who had written many books involving mysteries surrounding human interactions, often in the context of multigenerational or historical events; and David Shore, creator and screenwriter of the iconic series 'House', in which the misanthropic Dr. Gregory House had pursued, with his team, the nature and source of their patients' mysterious ailments with the zeal and ingenuity of a Sherlock Holmes, episode by episode over eight highly successful seasons. 

Later that year, it was resolved by the CWA executive to expand the scope of the Association to include mysteries of all types; to reconstitute the Association, accordingly, as the Mystery Writers Association (MWA); and to open membership of the MWA to include writers of mystery movies for both the big and small screens and screenwriters for original television series. The success of the reconstituted Association is nowhere better reflected than in that of the currently ongoing bridge competition which was revived after a lapse of 9 years. Out of a record number of 77 entrants, the 14 that survived the preliminary rounds of the 2024/2025 competition were joined by the 2015 winners, the Christie and Chandler teams, as the number one and two seeds in the round of 16, which was held in New Orleans on December 15.
As it transpired, no one had appreciated the extent to which the elimination rounds of the tournament had captured the imagination of the public at large but particularly amongst TV viewers in the USA. Fans flocked to the Bourbon City in droves, to see how their favorite characters would tackle the mysteries at the bridge table. Nor were they to be disappointed. Amongst the eight Teams that qualified for the quarter finals, David Shore's "House" Team provided, perhaps, the most entertainment, with Gregory House earning the nickname "Jettison King" for his spectacular play on 3 vital boards. 

The nautical term "jettison" refers to the practice of throwing valuable cargo overboard to lighten a ship to prevent it from sinking. In bridge, it is applied to making an unusual discard of a high winning card to bring home a contract or, alternatively, defeat one . The first half of the 24-board match between the Goddard and Shore teams saw Robert Goddard and Stephen Ward sitting N-S with David Shore and Gregory House E-W in the open room. The spectators in the open room were treated to a closely-fought first session with both pairs playing solid bridge, echoing the sound performance of their teammates in the closed room, where Doctors Lisa Cuddy and James Wilson were playing N-S for the Shore team. Going into the final board before the half-way break neither team had won more than 5 IMPs on any of the 11 hands played thus far and the Shore team led by the slimmest of margins.So, to board 12, dealer W, both sides vulnerable, the first significant swing of the match:

After a pass from House in the West seat, Goddard opened the bidding with1♣ and raised Ward's 1♥response directly to 3NT. For want of a better alternative, Shore led his ♠8, second highest card from a suit with 4 or more cards, denying an honor. House knew from his partner's opening lead that Goddard held both the ♠A and ♠Q and that Shore's spades were headed by the ♠9. In order not to disclose the exact distribution of the missing spades he played the ♠J, a card which he was known to have. Goddard duly won the trick in hand with the ♠Q and followed this with the ♥Q in an attempt to finesse Shore for the ♥K. House let the ♥Q hold the trick in case declarer had started with a doubleton heart but won the repeated finesse with his ♥K and, to the bewilderment of many of the spectators in the open room, led the ♠K. Declarer won with the ♠A and now ran his established heart suit.

On the fourth round of hearts, House, to the amazement and subsequent delight of the spectators, flamboyantly jettisoned his ♠10. He knew that his partner's ♠9 would now be high and, if Shore held one of the minor suit aces for entry to his hand, he would be able to score as many as 3 spade tricks, depending on whether he had started with 4 or 5 cards in that suit. The best Goddard could now do was to cash two top diamonds giving him 8 tricks in the bag, and play on clubs in search of a ninth. Shore won with his now bare ♣A and House's clinically-precise jettison play having unblocked the spade suit, was able to cash the ♠9 and two further baby spades winners to defeat the contract.

As the play ended, the spectators roundly applauded the Shore team players. They could see from the electronic scoreboard that 3NT had been made by North (Cuddy) in the closed room and thereby the Shore team had chalked up a vulnerable game swing, worth 12 IMPs, on the board. Review of the closed room play revealed that the bidding and play had been identical to that in the open room up to the point at which the second round of spades had been won by the ♠A in dummy. However, Cuddy elected not to run her winning hearts now, but rather to first play on clubs to set up a trick in that suit. Her decision was based on careful and irrefutable logic: West's ♠J and ♠K could not have been doubleton as this would imply East had started with a 6-card spade suit headed by the 10, 9 and 8, in which case, he would have led the ♠9; If West had started with 4 spades, his holding would be irrelevant as his partnership would be limited to only 2 tricks in spades, insufficient to threaten the contract; Conversely. if West had started with 3 spades, his third card had to be the ♠10, rather than the ♠9, else he would have retained one of the spades honors to guard against declarer winning another spade trick and so spades would be blocked in the West hand. Cuddy therefore concluded she had to win a club trick before West had a chance to unblock the spade suit thus denying him the opportunity of making the spade jettison, even if he had a mind to do so.

For the second half, Shore chose to remain in the open room but this time with himself seated North and House, South. Goddard and Shaw assumed the parallel seats in the closed room. Early in the session, two boards presented the South players with the challenge of recognizing the need to make out-of-the-box discards, jettisons, if you like, which were critical to the success of their respective game contracts. House was adequate to the task in both cases but Shaw, unfortunately, not. The first of these game-swing hands came after 3 flat boards:

Board 16, Dealer East. E/W Vulnerable:

In both rooms, South ended up as declarer in 3NT after West had opened the bidding with a pre-emptive 2♥. Similarly, West, in both rooms, led the ♥K, which was ducked, and then continued with the Queen of that suit. Counting 9 tricks on top – 1 heart, 2 spades, 1 club and 5 diamonds, Shaw saw no reason to duck again so won the second trick with ♥A in dummy, East discarding a small club. A diamond to his ♦Q, followed by the Ace, revealed the 3-1 split in that suit. Although he still had the ♦K in dummy to capture East's knave, on the fourth round of diamonds. the ♦9 blocked him in his hand and prevented him from cashing dummy's fifth diamond. One down.

In the open room, House found the correct play to make his contract. He recognized dummy's paltry diamonds provided only one entry to the table and, unless the suit broke 2-2, he would be blocked in his hand on the fourth round of the suit. He needed a way to dump one of the diamonds in his hand. That being so, he ducked the ♥Q as well, and when West continued the suit, House won the trick with dummy's ♥A and jettisoned the ♦7 from his hand – not as spectacular, nor as obvious, as the jettison of a high honor card, but none the less effective Even if West had not continued with a third round of hearts, but switched to the ♣K, say, House could have won the trick in hand, played 3 rounds of diamonds, ending in dummy with the ♦K, and played the ♥A, himself, to jettison the remaining "high" diamond from his hand.

Board 17 was nondescript but the next board produced the second game swing of the session:

Board 18. Dealer East. Both sides vulnerable:

In both rooms, N/S ended in 4♥ after East had opened with 1♣. West led ♣J. With only one trump and two spade losers on top, the contact looks secure. In the closed room, however, Shaw won with the ♣K and immediately led trumps. East won with the ♥A and led club to give his partner a ruff. Shaw still had to lose 2 spade tricks. One down again!

In the open room, House found the winning line of play. Recognizing the ♣J may be singleton he won with the ♣A in dummy. He now played ♦A and jettisoned the ♣K from his hand. Now when he lost a trump to East's ♥A, he himself could trump the club return and West could not over-ruff.

The end result was that the Shore team virtually white washed Goddard's team in the second half, winning the match 71-18 and could go on to the quarter finals with fullest confidence.