The ace of diamonds won the first trick, East playing the nine, which should be a suit preference signal for spades. West leads the six of spades to the three, king, and ace. Declarer plays a club to the ace, West playing the queen and East, the three.
At this point, declarer led the nine of clubs to the king and West discarded a diamond. The dummy was entered with a diamond and two spades were discarded on top hearts. A club trick was conceded, making five.
During the discussion that followed, the declarer said that she followed the saying "eight ever - nine never" as a rule for deciding whether to take the club finesse. In other words, because her partnership held a nine card club suit, she was just going to play the ace and the king and hope that the outstanding clubs divided 2-2.
There is another concept that is known as "restricted choice". This concept indicates that the reason West played the queen of clubs at his first opportunity to play clubs was because his choice was restricted. If he had more than one club, he could have played a different card. And four outstanding cards in a suit will more often divide 3-1 than 2-2.
If the declarer follows this logic, she will play two top hearts when she is in dummy with the ace of clubs and then, play a club towards her hand and simply cover whatever card East plays. The finesse works and she makes an overtrick.
Keep in mind that this still might be a poor result. At many tables, North may bid three no trump and after a spade lead he will enter the dummy with the ace of clubs to cash three top hearts. He will then take a deep breath, think about restricted choice, and finesse for the jack of clubs, making eleven tricks.
District Five of the American Contract Bridge League held the All-American Regional Bridge Tournament in Independence on May 22 - 28. The following players were successful in their respective events on May 24. Other results were listed in previous columns, more will appear later.
Two Session Stratified Pairs (66 pairs). Stratum A. 1. Bruce Brian, Dublin, and James Brittan, Massapequa, NY. 2. Paul Neidlinger and Nancy Michael, Youngstown. Stratum B. 1. Ernest Humbert, Uniontown, and Harold Stuteville, Wadsworth. 2. Rae Oltean, Youngstown, and Betty Owens, Struthers. Stratum C. 1. William Dickinson, Northfield, and Gary Collins, University Heights. 2. Dot Rock and Kurt Rusch, Mayfield Heights.
Evening Swiss Teams (19 teams). Stratum A. 1. Donald Rop, Chagrin Falls, Jack Knudson, Solon, Mina Ronen, Akron, and Virginia Young, Hudson. 2. Janice Smith, Barberton, Raelene Kirkbride, Rock Hill, SC, Sue Becker, Canton, and Dave Anthony, East Liverpool. Stratum B. 1. Smith, Kirkbride, Becker, and Anthony. 2. Harriet Kitay, Solon, Terry Goldberg, Cleveland, Charlotte Friedman, Lyndhurst, and Diane Wasserman, University Heights. Stratum C. 1. James Coleman and Elizabeth Hodges, Cuyahoga Falls, with Shirley Kmet and Betty Cliff, Akron. 2. Mary and Ken Cornelius with John and Virginia Gajar, Ann Arbor, MI.
Afternoon Side Game (45 pairs). Stratum A & B. 1. Lyn Joslyn and Patrick Holden, Hudson. 2. Rosalyn Sukenic, Cleveland, and Harriet Adelstein, Chagrin Falls. Stratum C. 1. Shirley Veale, Hudson, and W. R. Meyer, Shaker Heights. 2. Marilyn Johnston, Alliamce, and Ruth Braidic, Sebring.
Evening Side Game (24 pairs). Stratum A. 1. Bonnie Goodman, Pepper Pike, and Peter Miller, Shaker Heights. 2. Robert Urmanic, Elyria, and Ronald Kral, Reston, VA. Stratum B. 1. Goodman and Miller. 2. Nancy Brown, Silver Lake, and William Riley, Akron.
Evening 299er Pairs (12 pairs). 1. Janet and Jay Auwerter, Gates Mills. 2. Sally Sharp and Alexandra Walker, Akron.
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Bernstein is
a free-lance writer in Solon. To reach Harvey Bernstein: hjb0416@yahoo.com