Tony's Bridge Site UK - Have you ever been Grosvenored?

Have you ever been Grosvenored?

Written by Jeff Smith

One of the most frustrating plays in Bridge was named after a certain Mr Grosvenor who took delight in giving his opponents winning options when none existed. But his opponent never took the winning option, he always took the losing option anyway. By using logical reasoning he could not believe that the winning option was being offered! A recent example occurred at a Manchester Wednesday night duplicate when an expert (West) found himself in 6D with Mr Alias Grosvenor sitting South.

After the bidding:

W	N	E	S
	3C	-	5C
5S	-	-	6C
6D	-	-	-

North led the CA.

West		East

S AKxxx		S QJx
H Qxx		H AJ9xx
D AK9xx		D Jxxx
C -		C x

Mr Expert ruffed, cashed DA, and DK (North throwing a club). Now our expert played five rounds of spades (North discarding on the third round). Mr Alias Grosvenor was now thrown in with a diamond. The four card end position for East/West being:

S -		S -
H Qxx		H AJ9
D 9		D x
C -		C -

Mr Alias Grosvenor exited with a small heart, small from declarer, 10 from North and jack from dummy.

It seemed like North had 7 clubs, 1 diamond, 2 spades and thus 3 hearts. Hence he was more likely to hold HK. Further and more definitely, if Mr Alias Grosvenor had HKx, he could always have given a ruff and discard in clubs and still enjoy the HK to beat the contract.

So, Mr Expert crossed to hand with his last trump and confidently finessed in hearts losing to the now singleton HK! Yes his RHO had well and truly GROSVENORed him!