This hand was played at a duplicate bridge game and the final contract is very aggressive. The North-South pair are missing the ace of diamonds as well as the king and jack of trump. I would guess that most pairs played the hand at four spades and with any luck, made seven.
The standard lead should be the ten of clubs. Declarer will win this trick in the dummy and play a spade to the queen. When that card holds, the ace of spades extracts the remaining trump and declarer can unblock the top hearts and re-enter dummy with a club to discard the king of diamonds.
This is fairly easy when you only have to make ten tricks. But our declarer, in six spades, found himself in a pickle after the same opening lead. He won the trick in the dummy and led a spade to the queen. West followed smoothly with the jack of spades.
South never thought that this was a trap. He unblocked the ace and king of hearts and led a small club toward the dummy so that he could cash the queen of hearts and then repeat the spade finesse. West trumped the club lead and cashed the ace of diamonds for a one trick set.
Declarer was guilty of pure greed. Even if the jack of spades is a singleton, cashing the ace before taking the diamond discard would result in twelve tricks. Don't lose sight of your objective - a wily defender may trip you up.
Unit 125 of the American Contract Bridge League held the Ohio Masters Sectional Bridge Tournament in Solon on March 17 - 19. The following players were successful in their respective events on March 18. Other results appeared last week and more will be listed in next week.
Flight A Two Session Pairs (34 pairs). Stratum A1. 1. Don and Kathleen Sulgrove, Twinsburg. 2. Bernie Greenspan, Beachwood, and Paul Facinelli, Avon Lake. Stratum A2. 1. Greenspan and Facinelli. 2. Marc Sylvester, Edinboro, PA, and Francis Tseng, Erie, PA.
Morning Flight B Pairs (20 pairs). 1. David Donald, Vineyard, MA, and Barbara Grzegorzewski, Meadville, PA. 2. Rosemary Kleis and Mariellen White, Solon.
Afternoon Flight B Pairs (18 pairs). 1. David Donald, Vineyard, MA, and Barbara Grzegorzewski, Meadville, PA. 2. Nancy Evans and Eileen Machan, Cuyahoga Falls.
Morning Flight C Pairs (36 pairs). 1. Chantal Whitney, Shaker Heights, and Philip Macfarlane, Parma. 2. Lesley Green, Lakewood, and Angela Strainic, Mentor.
Afternoon Flight C Pairs (22 Pairs). 1. Duane Seelinger, Mentor On The Lake, and James Novak, Solon. 2. Dot Rock, Cleveland, and Kurt Rusch, Mayfield Heights.
Morning 299er Pairs (26 pairs). Stratum A. 1. Linda Beringer and Kristen Kemp, Akron. 2. Vivian Shanafelt, Medina, and Rita Davis, Avon Lake. Stratum B. 1. Beringer and Kemp. 2. Georgia Dixon, Cleveland, and Frances King, Shaker Heights. Stratum C. 1. Roy Larson, Wadsworth, and Dennis Young, Massillon. 2. Daniel Solow, Cleveland Heights, and Arthur Heuer, Cleveland.
Afternoon 299er Pairs (16 pairs). Stratum A. 1. Robert
Werner and Ruth Schaul, Chagrin Falls. 2. Victor and Cheryl
Shaia, Sarasota, FL. Stratum B. 1. The Shaias. 2. Helen Burns,
Moreland Hills, and Mary Kay Covington, Shaker Heights.
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Bernstein is
a free-lance writer in Solon.
To reach Harvey Bernstein:
hjb0416@yahoo.com