Toni and I had played 103 hands, not counting the side game. These were my final thirteen cards:
I've saved the hand records from the tournament, and have been using them to help me write an accurate account. But I didn't need to look at the hand records for this one. It's a hand I will never forget.
East was the designated dealer. Toni set the 1 
card on the table. South passed, and it was up to me.
I had hoped that the reason I hadn't heard from Trapp on that last hand was because he knew it wouldn't make a difference, but I still wasn't getting anything from him.
I bid my longest suit, 1
.
North passed.
Toni placed the 3 bid on the table.
She could have just bid two clubs, so Annabel's jump to three clubs showed extra strength. Since I had an opening hand too, we definitely belonged in game, and possibly slam.
South passed, and it was back to me.
I could use a little help here, I thought.
Maybe it had to do with the location of the table. Hell, for all I knew, it could have been the location of Jupiter, or the fact that the guy next to me was wearing a striped shirt, but for whatever reason, I was getting no help from my uncle.
I looked at my cards again, then at the bids on the table.
I thought about bidding three diamonds, but I was afraid Annabel might pass, and we needed to bid game. I could try four diamonds, but that would take three no-trump out of the picture. But if I bid three no-trump, we wouldn't get to explore for slam. I considered just taking a shot at six no-trump.
I wondered what Lucy had bid when she had played the hand earlier. She was also sitting in the West seat. Earlier in the session she had held these very same cards.
I decided on the safest action, and set the 3NT bid on the table. I wouldn't want to be in slam without Trapp.
North passed and it was Toni's turn again. She sat there a long time without making a bid.
I wondered what Annabel was thinking about. I wondered if it would make a difference if she knew I was her partner.
Toni reached into her bidding box and pulled out a green card.
The final contract was three no-trump, and I would have to be the declarer. North led the six of spades and Toni tabled her cards.
Opening lead:
6
It looked easy. I could win one spade trick, three heart tricks, and six diamond tricks. That's ten tricks right there. And I might even get some club tricks.
"Thank you, partner," I said, then told Toni to play the four of spades.
The next person played the Q, and I was just about to play my ace, when I suddenly realized it wasn't going to be as easy as I had first thought. I had a serious transportation problem.
My ace of spades was the only entry to my hand. All my other suits were blocked!
If I'd played the ace of spades immediately, I'd have won that trick. I could then have won the next three tricks in dummy, with its three red cards. But then I would have had no transportation to my hand to play the rest of my good hearts and diamonds. I'd have been forced to lead a black card from dummy. The defenders would have been able to take two club tricks and at least three spade tricks, setting the contract.
I stared at the cards in disbelief. I had all these high cards and no way to use them. Strange, but the dummy would have been a lot better if it had had the two of diamonds instead of the queen of clubs.
I have this rule. If you can see that plan A won't work, don't do it, even if you don't have a plan B.
I suppose experts always have a plan B, and even a plan C, but my rule had worked pretty well when I played in the side game.
Since I knew playing the 
A wouldn't work, I ducked. I played the 8.
The opponents won the first trick. I could only let them win three more.
My other opponent was on-lead, and he set down the K.
Again, playing the A wouldn't work, so following Alton's rule, I ducked, playing the 10.
They'd won the first two tricks.
My best hope was that my opponent would now lead a red card. I suppose that was my plan B.
No luck. He led the 3.
This was what I had left.
My ace of spades was my last spade, so I had to play it. The guy on my left played the 7, and I was just about to discard the 
2 from dummy, when I suddenly spotted my plan C.
Since I had no transportation to get from the dummy to my hand, I just had to make sure that the dummy hand never won a trick. And that meant discarding the ace of hearts!
"Ace of hearts," I said.
A look of surprise came across Toni's face, but dummy has no choice in the matter. She discarded the 
A.
I was on-lead. I led the K, and once again had to discard something from dummy. "Ace of diamonds," I 
said, throwing away a second ace. Next I led the Q and discarded the 
K. I'd taken three tricks. I needed six more.
I started with six diamonds in my hand, and the dummy began with two, for a total of eight. That meant the opponents had five diamonds between them. If they split 3-2, I could run off six diamond tricks.
I led the 
Q.
Both opponents played low diamonds. There were three diamonds still out.
I led the J.
Again, both opponents followed suit.
My 10 took care of the last outstanding diamond. I ran the rest of my diamonds, for a total of nine tricks. The opponents took the last two.
At first glance the hand seemed like it would be a snap. I had more than enough high cards. However, on second look, it seemed hopeless. Strangely, I didn't have enough low cards! I came up with a very unusual plan. Normally you only discard low cards. I discarded two aces and a king!
Maybe Trapp could have done better, but at least I made my contract.
"Let's go!" Toni said, jumping up from the table.
She was right. We needed to check the results and get out of there ahead of Lucy and Arnold.
When I stood up, I was finally able to hear Trapp's voice again.
He said just two words to me, but those two words caused me to stop and then grab hold of the top of the chair for support. I was still standing there when Toni returned three or four minutes later.
"Are you all right?" she asked. "You're trembling."
I didn't know it at the time, but those were the last two words my uncle would ever say to me.
He had said, "Nicely played."