As Yogi Berra once said, "This is deja vu all over again." Today's hand is the same one that appeared here last week. This hand generated more comments and more discussion than any I have ever run. Here is a short recap. West led the ace of spades. Declarer trumped in dummy, drew one round of trump, and played three rounds of diamonds, trumping the third diamond in the dummy. He then led the ace of clubs and a small club, endplaying West when the queen held the second club trick.
The majority of those contacting me indicated that East could defeat this slams by playing the queen of clubs when the ace was played from the dummy. After all, it was pretty obvious that an end play was coming and it was also obvious that nothing would be lost.
How so? Well, if South holds the king of clubs, the queen is going to fall under it anyway. If South does not hold the king, then partner has it and most likely, partner also has the jack or ten. Why? If South had some club combination that included the jack-ten, he would be taking a club finesse, losing to the queen, and then returning to the South hand to repeat the finesse. This would limit the losers in the club suit to only one.
Now, what can the declarer do to avoid this potential unblocking play? The opening lead was the ace of spades. Declarer trumped this card and played the king of hearts, drawing trump. How about playing the ace of clubs right then? Will East see the potential end play at trick three? Probably not, but think about it. Why is declarer playing the ace? If East is alert, he may unblock anyway, or maybe not. That's why this is such a great game.
District 5 of the American Contract Bridge League sponsored the Rock and Roll Regional Bridge Tournament from January 12 to 16 in Independence. The following players were successful in their respective events on January 15. Other results appeared last week, more will be listed in future columns.
Two Session Flight A Pairs (46 pairs). Stratum A1. 1. Patrick Spooner, Brunswick, and Elbert Hargesheimer, Hamburg, NY. 2. Brian Meyer and Teresa Fraas, Buffalo, NY. Stratum A2. 1. Meyer and Fraas. 2. Sally Veauthier, Columbiana, and Vernon De Jong, Sharon, PA.
Two Session Flight B/C/D Pairs (52 pairs). Stratum B. 1. George Manos and Boots Frey, Canton. 2. Hope Ellis, Beachwood, and Diane Wasserman, University Heights. Stratum C. 1. Susan Conrad, Madison, and Mary Anne Kriesen, Mentor. 2. Lille Mortensen, Beachwood, and Betty Hitchcock, Mentor. Stratum D. 1. Conrad and Kriesen. 2. Kanti Chavada, Columbus, and Suman Agarwal, Hilliard.
Bracketed Knock Out Teams III. Bracket 1 (9 teams). 1. Stephen Landen, Rochester Hills, MI, Dan Gertsman, Buffalo, NY, Rick Kaye, Bingham Farms, MI, and Pratap Rajadhyaksha, Powell. 2. Lloyd Loux, Westlake, Jim Bachelder, Columbus, Colin Revill, Ancaster, Ontario, Canada, Phil Leon, Grosse Pointe, MI, and Michael Cassel II, Roseville, MN. Bracket 2 (10 teams). 1. Lynne Ostrow, John and Frank Plunkett, Morgantown, WV, and William Bedard, Ligonier, PA. 2. Loretta Faivre, Huron, Dotty Warrick, Port Clinton, John Bossard and Richard Hammond, Sandusky. Bracket 3 (16 teams). 1. Dorothy Mehok, Sewickley, PA, Marlene Mc Connell, Allison Park, PA, Doris Hess, Beaver, PA, Janice Smith Beaver Falls, PA. 2. Nicholas Ogan, Moreland Hills, Victor Vertes, Cleveland, Layton Kest and Marlene Zinamon, Beachwood.
Morning Knock Out Teams (11 teams). 1. Jim Bachelder, Columbus, Michael Cassel II, Roseville, MN, Stan Dub, Shaker Heights, Lloyd Loux, Westlake, Phil Leon, Grosse Pointe, MI, and Colin Revill, Ancaster, Ontario, Canada. 2. Patrick Spooner, Brunswick, Albert Freeman, Cleveland, Mary and James Reeve, North Royalton.
Fairmount Temple in Beachwood, where the Beachwood Duplicate
Bridge Club has regular Monday afternoon games, will be closed
Monday, February 21, for President's Day. So the game that day
will be held at the Lyndhurst Community Presbyterian Church, 5312
Mayfield Road, Lyndhurst, at 12:15 p.m. Call (216) 591-9566 for
full information.
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Bernstein is
a free-lance writer in Solon.
To reach Harvey Bernstein:
hjb19@adelphia.net