West leads the king of hearts and if declarer doesn't put on his thinking cap and plays dummy's ace of hearts, he fails automatically. With both finesses wrong, East trumps the ace of hearts and shifts to a club. Declarer has to try the queen. West wins, cashes a heart, and when the diamond finesse loses, South finishes a trick short.
A thoughtful declarer can overcome these problems by playing low from dummy at trick one and on the second heart lead as well. After East trumps the third heart, declarer trumps higher, draws trumps, and runs the jack of diamonds. This loses to the queen. East shifts to a club but declarer plays the ace and runs diamonds, discarding the queen of clubs on the fourth diamond. Declarer wins six spade tricks, three diamonds, and the ace of clubs for a total of ten.
This is a very unusual "avoidance" play, keeping East off lead until it is safe to allow him to have the lead. The big problem is that you cannot afford to make this play at "matchpoint duplicate" competition. If East has just one heart, playing the ace at trick one will allow declarer to make one or two overtricks depending on the location of the diamond queen.
If the competition is rubber bridge or teams, playing for an overtrick and putting the contract at risk is foolish.
There is one more point here. East must be asking himself, "Why is declarer refusing to play his ace of hearts?" Maybe the first trick makes sense, but on the second trick, something should smell a little off. Wouldn't it be neat if East trumped the second heart and shifted to a club? Wouldn't you like to be "that" East?
Unit 125 of the American Contract Bridge League held the Silver Bowl State Sectional Bridge Tournament in Solon on August 5 - 7. The following players were successful in their respective events on August 6. Other results appeared last week, more will be listed next week.
Two session open pairs (36 pairs). 1. Phillip Becker, Beachwood, and Harry Stratton, Columbus. 2. Laurie and Kenneth Kranyak, Bay Village.
Morning Flight B Pairs (28 pairs). 1. Marjorie Holister and Marcy Shenker, Painesville. 2. William Dickinson, Northfield, and Gary Collins, University Heights.
Morning Flight C Pairs (30 pairs). 1. William and Mary Roberts, North Ridgeville. 2. Marge Sobey, Middleburg Heights, and Betty Williams, North Royalton.
Morning 299er Pairs (32 pairs). Strata A & B. 1. Gary and Gayle Nelkin, Fairlawn. 2. Nancy Schreck, Solon, and Joanne Stoddard, Sagamore Hills. Stratum C. 1. Bradley and Kathleed Sevcik, Youngstown. 2. Mary Kay Covington, Beachwood, and Helen Burns, Moreland Hills.
Afternoon Flight B Pairs (22 pairs). 1. William Dickinson, Northfield, and Gary Collins, University Heights. 2. Mollay Fainer, University Heights, and Marvin Wolf, Cleveland.
Afternoon Flight C Pairs (18 pairs). 1. Dorothy Piovano, Medina, and Retha Lakins, Akron. 2. Isabel Worthington, Aurora, and Robert Werner, Chagrin Falls.
Afternoon 299er Pairs (15 pairs). Stratum A. 1. Ildiko
Baxter, Cleveland Heights, and Marilyn Doman, Chagrin Falls. 2.
Doris Kirsch, East Springfield, and James Wise, Cambridge
Springs. Stratum B. 1. Baxter and Doman. 2. Georgia Dixon,
Cleveland, and Frances King, Shaker Heights.
----
Bernstein is
a free-lance writer in Solon.
To reach Harvey Bernstein:
hjb19@adelphia.net