The opening lead was the jack of diamonds. East won the ace and returned the queen. South played the king. West trumped and shifted to the six of spades. Declarer played low. East won the king and cashed a top diamond for down one.
During the post-mortem, South told his partner that they had been very unlucky to go down in this contract. The singleton diamond, the offside king of spades, the duplication of values in the club suit - what a shame.
North commiserated, but we know better. How would you have played this hand?
If you consider the bidding, it is easy to determine that the opening lead is a singleton. At trick two, play a low diamond from both the South and North hands. East will continue with the ten of diamonds and you are forced to play the king. West trumps and returns the six of spades. Play the ace of spades.
With the lead in dummy, play a diamond. East contributes the nine and you trump high. Two rounds of trump are next, ending in dummy. The fifth diamond in the North hand is now the resting place for the jack of spades. Four hearts, bid and made.
There is a great deal of information available to the declarer at the beginning of a hand. What seems to be the most difficult of exercises is using that information to it's greatest advantage.
The All-American Regional Bridge tournament will be held at the Holiday Inn, 6001 Rockside Road, Independence, starting on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. with both team and pair events.
The tournament will continue through Memorial Day with events for players of all levels. A special series of events for non life master players will held. A trophy will be awarded to the non life master player with the best overall record in these events.
For additional information, call (440) 333-2536.
The Bridge Prize Money Tour is coming to the Cleveland area in conjunction with the All-American Regional Bridge Tournament.
There will be three separate events to select from. The "Open" event has a $100 entry fee. Two qualifying sessions will be held on Thursday at 1:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. The final session will be held on Friday at 9:00 a.m. The "Stratified" event is open to players who have won less that $500 in prior prize money events. The entry fee is $30 and includes two sessions, Thursday night and Friday morning. The "299er" event is open to players with less than 300 master points and the entry fee is $20. This is also a two session event on Thursday night and Friday morning. The total prize package will depend on the number of entries in each separate event but could be as much as $12,000 with a potential first place award of $4,000 in the Open event.
The tournament will be run as an 'individual' and all
participants will play the same Standard American Yellow Card
(SAYC) system. For more information go to www.bridgeprotour.com
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Bernstein is
a free-lance writer in Solon.