Today's hand was played during a team event and both pairs stopped at three no-trump. In each case, declarer made eleven tricks. If you count the actual tricks that you should be able to take, you can see ten and if either red suit breaks three- three, you should be able to come to eleven.
The lesson on this hand seems to be: when you can make eleven tricks, you may be able to create twelve! It is hands like this one that separates the good players from the great players. Let's watch a great player work on this hand.
He wins the opening lead on the table and sees that East has no spades. He counts ten sure tricks. It appears that a spade must be lost, and either a heart or a club as well. His first play is the ace of diamonds. West discards a spade and the declarer has a great start on a complete count of the hand. At trick three he leads a small club and plays low from his hand. West wins this trick and makes the safe exit of a club.
Declarer wins the ace and plays on the heart suit. Both opponents follow to three rounds of hearts. Declarer now has a complete count on the hand. This is the position before the last heart is played:
The nine of hearts is played and East must discard a diamond. South discards the ten of spades. West's play is immaterial. The four of spades is next and East is destroyed. If he discards a club, both of declarer's clubs are good. If he discards a diamond, all three of dummies diamonds are good. In either case, declarer makes twelve tricks.
Losing the club early is knows as "rectifying the count". The concept is easier to display in hands like today's, but it is just as valid in many hands that are not slams. Losing a trick that you have to lose in order to remove an extra card from a defenders hand will make it difficult for that defender to guard more than one suit later in the hand. This is an advanced concept, but it is much easier than it first appears.
Congratulations to Patricia Novak and Helen Radigan of Mentor. They finished first overall in the Stratified Senior Pairs (46 pairs) on April 11 at the Gatlinburg, TN Regional Bridge Tournament. Their names were erroneously omitted from the recent listing of results from that tournament.
District Five of the American Contract Bridge League will sponsor the All-American Regional Bridge Tournament at the Holiday Inn, 6001 Rockside Road, Independence, from May 22 to 28.
A bracketed knock out team event and a stratified charity pair event will kick off the tournament at 7:30 p.m. on the 22nd. Bracketed team events are scheduled to begin at 9:00 a.m. on Wednesday through Saturday. Team and pair events for players at all levels will start at 1:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. every day except Sunday. Stratiflighted Swiss Team events will start at 11:00 a.m. on Sunday. Special events for non-life master players will be held each day.
For any other information visit the unit's web site at http://www.whistclub.org
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Bernstein is
a free-lance writer in Solon. To reach Harvey Bernstein: hjb0416@yahoo.com