Thanks to Bernie Greenspan of Beachwood and Al Freeman of Cleveland for this hand from the Flight A pairs at the Labor Day Regional Bridge Tournament in Pittsburgh. Greenspan and Freeman had never played as a partnership before this. They discussed bidding agreements during the drive to the tournament. This discussion was very productive as they won the flight A pairs on Sunday, September 5 with a huge 68% game.
I asked them to go over the hand records and find a hand that I could use in a column. They both felt that they had not really done anything special, they had just accepted what had been given them by the opponents. They agreed that this hand was interesting, however. Greenspan held the West cards and had to make an opening lead. Normally, he would have led his fourth best spade, but that was the suit bid by North. He decided to make a very passive lead of the eight of hearts.
Declarer won the ace in dummy and led a small spade to the jack, queen, and king. Greenspan continued with another heart through the jack. Declarer won the ace and played two rounds of spades, ending in the dummy. East discarded a diamond and a club.
At this point, declarer has scored two heart tricks and two spade tricks. He had a good spade the ace-king of diamonds in the dummy for a total of seven. In an attempt to create his eighth trick, he led a low diamond towards the jack. Freeman played the queen of diamonds, cash two hearts, and then played the king of clubs. When that held, a club to the ace produced the setting trick.
The defenders did well here, but they can't get all of the credit. Look at what happens if North bids one diamond at his first turn instead of one spade. South will respond one no trump. North will know that there is no major suit fit and he will bid two no trump, as shown. West, however, will more than likely lead his fourth best spade. The timing on the hand changes and declarer will be able to set up three spade tricks and still have control of the other suits so as to score his eighth trick.
Bypassing a good four card diamond suit to bid a poor four card spade suit is a questionable strategy. During the bidding, a player should think of what the rest of the field will do, and try to emulate that within the constraints of the partnership's bidding system. There may be opportunities to make a bid that the field wouldn't necessarily make, but this hand was not one of them.
Defender's should keep this old saying in mind: "There is no such thing as a blind opening lead, just deaf opening leaders."
The American Contract Bridge League held the Labor Day regional bridge tournament in Pittsburgh from September 1 to 6. Congratulations to all of the following local players who were successful in their respective events. Additional winners will be listed next week.
Martin Baff and Phillip Becker of Beachwood were members of the team that finished first out of ten teams in Bracket A of the opening knock-out team event on 9/1.
Laurie Kranyak and Virginia Moody of Bay Village finnished second out of 108 pairs in the two session open pairs on 9/1.
Baff and Roger Tiktin of Lakewood were first in Stratum A while Julia Allen of Willoughby and Jeffrey Myers of Willowick were second in Stratum B of the open pair event on 9/2 which was contested by 78 pairs.
Laurie Kranyak of Bay Village was a member of the team that
finished first (out of nine teams) in bracket 1 of the knock-out
teams that concluded on 9/3. Betty Hitchcock of Mentor,
Elisabeth Alexander of Chagrin Falls, Betty Hollister of Gates
Mills, and Lille Mortensen of Beachwood were first (out of 16
teams) in bracket 4 of the same event.
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Bernstein is
a free-lance writer in Solon.