West opened the jack of spades and South could count seven top tricks. Two spades, one heart and two in each of the minor suits. The heart suit appeared to be the only source of additional tricks. A heart to the queen won. Declarer cashed the ace of hearts, catching the king, and led a third heart, losing to the ten.
The two of diamonds went around to the king and declarer was only able to come to eight tricks. Down one for no good reason.
The defenders hearts are more likely to break 4-2 than 3-3, and the dummy has only one entry outside of the heart suit. The best play for the contract is to duck a heart at trick two. The nine should hold the first heart trick and West should return a small diamond. This comes around to the ace and declarer leads his second heart. West plays the king. The ace wins in dummy and delarer calls for the queen and another heart. East can win this trick but he cannot stop declarer from using the king of diamonds as an entry to the now established eight of hearts.
Ducking the first heart is just a little insurance. If the outstanding hearts break 3-3, you still have to lose one heart trick, so there is no cost to this play. You have to think ahead to develop tricks in long suits.
District 5 of the American Contract Bridge League held the Rock and Roll Regional Bridge Tournament in Independence on January 11 - 15. The following players were successful in their respective events on January 15 Other results appeared in previous columns.
Flight A Swiss Teams (25 teams) Stratum A. 1. Peter Petruzzellis, Toronto ON; Julian Heicklen, State College PA; Brian Meyer, Cheektowaga NY, Jay Costello and Donna Steffan, East Amherst, NY. 2. Paul Facinelli, Avon Lake, Bernie Greenspan, Beachwood, Stan Dub, Shaker Heights, and Michael Drozhinskiy, Solon. Stratum B. 1. Facinelli, Greenspan, Dub, and Drozhinskiy. 2. Karl Zaman, Strongsville, Judy Graf, Clarence, NY, Patricia Rasmus, Hamburg, NY, and Michael Ryan, Buffalo, NY.
Bracketed Swiss Teams. Bracket 1 (8 teams). 1. Peter Miller,
Shaker Heights, Donna Largent, Cleveland, Gary Montain, Westlake,
and Bonnie Goodman, Pepper Pike. 2. Allan Coyne, Kitchener,
Ontario, Canada, Michael Kammermayer, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada,
Leroy Boser and David McNitt, Elkhart, IN. Bracket 2 (8 teams).
1. W. Thomas Stahl, Vermilion, Jerome Yeamans, Lorain, Dodie
Beckman, Canton, MI, and Sheila Fasbender, Arcadia, IN. 2.
Beverly Carter, Medina, William Dickinson, Northfield, William
Alcorn, Chagrin Falls, and Gary Collins, University Heights.
Bracket 3 (8 teams). 1. Joan Rogoff, Beachwood, Eileen Gold,
Cleveland, Stephanie Bernstein, Solon, and Gene Owen, Columbus.
2. Alex McCrea, Shaker Heights, Virginia Colville, East
Cleveland, Chet Jain, Willoughby, and Subramania Krishnamurthi,
Naperville, IL. Bracket 4 (8 teams) 1. Robert Bailey Jr, Solon,
Joshua Bailey, Burton, Vivian Shanafelt, Medina, Doug Henderson,
Rocky River. 2. Thomas Watts III, Shaker Heights, David Hobe,
Strongsville, Philip Macfarlane, Parma, and Carolyn Sullivan,
Richfield. Bracket 5 (8 teams) 1. Allen Beroza, East Amherst,
NY, John Ricotta, Hamburg, NY, Martin and Barbara Pieterse,
Lancaster, NY. 2. Dorothy Argentieri, Alfred Station, NY.
Alberta Brown, Clarence Center, NY, Barbara McBride, Hornell, NY,
Edwin Dibert, Scio, NY. Bracket 6 (13 teams) 1. Thomas and
Janet Rice, Cleveland, James and Linda Stahl, Chagrin Falls. 2.
Cathy Weber, Chagrin Falls, Barbara Cunliffe, Cleveland, Roy
Larson, Wadsworth, and Dennis Young, Massillon.
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Bernstein is
a free-lance writer in Solon.
To reach Harvey Bernstein:
hjb0416@yahoo.com