This hand was played during a session of on-line bridge. Bridge Base Online not only allows players to play bridge 24 hours a day but it also provides a method to go back and review the results of all of the tables that played any given hand. This is an excellent way to study your errors and improve your game.
On this particular hand, many pairs made four spades but many pairs were down one as well. The difference turned out to be the opening lead. At the tables were the contract was made, West opened a top club and then continued clubs, allowing declarer to score the queen, which proved to be the tenth trick. When four spades was defeated, West did not lead a club. In one of those cases, the lead was the king of diamonds. Declarer drew trumps and played on clubs, losing three clubs and a diamond.
None of the declarers found the winning line against the diamond lead. South should win the ace of diamonds, draw trumps in two rounds, cash the high hearts and then trump a heart. Re- enter dummy with a spade and trump another heart. The end position looks like this:
Declarer knows that West holds the queen of diamonds, or at least, should. It is a simple matter to exit with a diamond and put West in the unenviable position of breaking clubs or leading his last diamond, allowing declarer to trump in one hand and discard a club from the other, making ten tricks.
Sign up for free access to Bridge Base Online by going to www.bridgebase.com and following the simple instructions. You will be amazed at the resources available through this web site at absolutely no charge.
The Spring North American Bridge Championships were held in Pittsburgh, PA from March 10 - 20. Congratulations to all of the area players who enjoyed success at this tournament. More results will appear in subsequent columns.
March 10. Don and Kathleen Sulgrove of Twinsburg were 15th in Flight A of the North American Open Pairs.
March 11. Hao Ge of Cleveland and his partner were third in
Flight A of the morning side game. Harry Essig of Westlake and
Sharon Bushman of Strongsville were 4th in Flight A of the
afternoon side game. Judith Rolnicki of Brunswick and her
partner were tied for 3rd in Flight B of the afternoon 49er
pairs. Angela Strainic of Mentor and Lesley Green of Lakewood
were 3rd and Donald and Katy Moyer of Silver Lake were 5th in
Flight C of the evening side game. Julia Allen of Willoughby was
a member of the team that finished 4th in Flight B of the evening
Swiss teams.
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Bernstein is
a free-lance writer in Solon.
To reach Harvey Bernstein:
hjb19@adelphia.net