Harvey Bernstein's Plain Dealer Bridge Column

I had the pleasure of playing with Bernie Greenspan of Beachwood in the two session Flight A pairs at the Silver Bowl sectional bridge tournament on August 17. While our overall finish was very average, some of our results were wonderful.

Today's hand was one of the good ones. A seemingly impossible contract was made to look easy by Greenspan. The auction was fairly straight forward. My four diamond call showed a second suit and slam interest. Four no trump was Roman Key Card Blackwood. Five clubs showed zero or three key cards (key cards are defined as the four aces and the king of trump). The final contract was ambitious, but remember, duplicate bridge is not a game for the timid, you have to be willing to take a chance.

West opened the ace of clubs which held the first trick. The four of diamonds was the lead to trick two. Greenspan played low from dummy because the king of diamonds had to be on side if this slam was to succeed. East played the eight and declarer won with the queen. The ace of spades revealed the horrible trump split. Greenspan played three rounds of top hearts, throwing a diamond from dummy on the third round. A diamond to the jack placed the lead in dummy. The ace of diamonds followed and was trumped low by East and over trumped by declarer. A club was played to the king and the jack of clubs was overtaken by the queen. With the lead in the South hand, the deuce of hearts was led and trumped with North's queen of spades. East was powerless to do anything but follow with a low spade.

The lead to trick twelve was in dummy. East held the jack-eight of trump, while Declarer held the king-ten. Greenspan claimed and the defenders offered their congratulations on a well played hand. Even when your game is average or below, a hand like this can provide a great deal of pleasure and is one of the reasons that we pursue this wonderful game.

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