Thanks to Jack Knudson of Solon for this hand. The bidding requires a little explanation. North's one no trump bid is forcing by system agreement. Two spades guarantees a six card suit.
West starts with the seven of diamonds and a small diamond is played from the North hand. East plays the ace and declarer plays the singleton jack. East can make the hand pretty easy by leading a heart or a club at trick two, but then, there would be nothing to write about.
East returns the three of diamonds and declarer has to decide how to proceed. The problem is that he does not know how the spades will break. While declarer would like to delay his decision regarding which suit to discard on the good diamond tricks, there may be entry problems later.
In order for declarer to be able to play the heart suit for only one loser, the king has to be in the West hand. This is clearly a 50/50 proposition. The only way that the club suit will spoil his chances is if East holds both the king and the queen, a much less likely situation. So pitch a heart from the South hand and win the second trick in the dummy.
Play on trumps and later in the hand, discard a second small heart on the second diamond winner. Take two finesses in clubs and score up the game.
Forcing declarer to make his key decision early in the hand is usually a good option for the defense. Declarer must be able to isolate the key cards in the hand and make the play with the highest chance for success.
The annual Labor Day Regional Bridge Tournament was held in Monroeville, PA from August 30 to September 4. Congratulations to the following area players who were successful in their respective events. Thursday, August 31
Marlene Zinamon of Beachwood and Victor Vertes of Cleveland were members of the team that finished first in Bracket Two of the Bracketed Knockout Teams. Martin Baff and Bernie Greenspan of Beachwood were first in the Evening Side Game. Alex McCrea of Shaker Heights, Molly and Stanley Jaffe of Beachwood finished in second place in Bracket Two of the Consolation Knockout Teams. Friday, September 1
James and Carolyn Sullivan of Richfield were second in Stratum B of the Stratified Open Pairs. Bernie Greenspan and Martin Baff of Beachwood were members of the team that finished fifth in Stratum A of the Stratified Swiss Teams. Alex McCrea of Shaker Heights was on the team that finished first in Stratum B of the same event. Saturday, September 2
Phillip Becker of Beachwood was a member of the team that finished first in the Stratified Morning Swiss Teams. John Viola of North Ridgeville, Lia Staaf of Rocky River, and Carol Cooperider of North Olmsted were members of the team that finished first in Stratum B of the same event. Jerome Rolnick of Lyndhurst and Marjorie Baldwin of Akron were first in the Fast Open Pairs. Lloyd Loux of Westlake and Bernard Olmstead of Warren were second in the same event. Sunday, September 3
Frank Scali of North Ridgeville and his partner finished first in Stratum B of the Afternoon Side Game as well as first in Stratum B of the Evening Side Game. Kenneth Kranyak of Bay Village and his partner were first in the Flight A Pairs. Brian Ellis of Beachwood and his partner were sixth and Kathleen Sulgrove of Twinsburg and Laurie Kranyak of Bay Village were seventh in the same event. Monday, September 4
Peter Grover of Aurora was a member of the team that finished first in the Flight A Swiss teams. Kathleen Sulgrove of Twinsburg, Kenneth and Laurie Kranyak of Bay Village were members of the team that finished second in the same event.
Fred Eberlin's Wednesday afternoon duplicate bridge game has
a new home. The game will now be held at the Lyndhurst community
presbyterian church, 5312 Mayfield Road, Lyndhurst in the
Fellowship Room of the Main Building. The game is stratified and
open to all players. It starts at 12:30 p.m. and the entry fee
is $5.50. Call 440-461-4963 for any other information.
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Bernstein is
a free-lance writer in Solon.
To reach Harvey Bernstein:
hjb0416@yahoo.com