Frank Morgan

Here’s an interesting hand from a Royal Caribbean regional bridge tournament cruise (with 6000 passengers and 2000 staff on the Allure of the Seas) with Larry Cohen in December, 2012. After my partner (Lois Hausman) opened 1D, I took her to 6N. After a heart lead, she properly advanced the 9 of spades and West properly covered, leaving East with the J86 after dummy’s A1075. Do you see how to make the hand? Take the club finesse and the AK, play out the red winners, and then put East in with the club 9 to his 10. Now he must lead from his spades.

On Cohen’s earlier similar cruise on the Liberty of the Seas in 2010, I played a hand with Judy Higbee against Jeff Meckstroth and his wife. Sitting North, after 3 passes, I decided to open 1H and go to game if my partner responded at all. Meckstroth (East) doubled, 1N by partner, 2S by West, 4H by me. Partner put down a nice hand, but with a singleton heart. Since I had three spades to lose, I had to bring in the hearts, and Meckstroth’s double suggested he might have just one, in which case I’d have to finesse right away. Or should I go for the drop? Meckstroth took it out of my hands by leading A, Q, 5 of spades! His partner won the K and continued with the thirteenth spade, so now I had to finesse by trumping with the 10. Meckstroth threw off, I heaved a sigh of relief, went to dummy, finessed the heart, and Meckstroth won the J. He kindly showed me his hand: he had J fourth! In the discussion afterwards, I mentioned that my opponent had doubled my opening 1H with J fourth. “Who would do that?” asked Cohen. “Jeff Meckstroth” I replied. Cohen later said to me, “I think you embarrassed Jeff with your question.” Yet it was Meckstroth’s double and his wife’s 2S that led him to the best defense (although it made no difference in this case).

The May 24, 2023 “Sorry Partner” podcast includes near the beginning my account of a later encounter on BBO ACBL Speedball with the Meckstroths: