With twenty high card points in the North hand, it was easy to bid three no trump after South mentioned that he had a club suit. West, not wanting to lead into South's clubs, started with the queen of hearts. Declarer called for the ace of hearts. East played the ten to show his partner where that card was.
A small diamond went to the queen and a diamond was returned to the ten in the dummy. East played the ace and returned a heart. Declarer wound up losing a diamond, a club, two hearts and a spade, for down one.
The error was made at trick two. With only one potential entry to the South hand outside of the club suit, clubs must be played immediately. West can take his ace but neither defender can keep declarer from scoring two club tricks and scoring an overtrick. It would more than likely be in declarer's best interest to duck the first heart trick, but the way the cards lie in this hand that is not really necessary.
The Labor Day Regional Bridge Tournament was held in Monroeville, PA from August 30 to September 5. Congratulations to the following area players who were successful in their respective events. Other results were listed last week.
Arthur Ehrler of Cleveland and Joseph Radvansky of Marblehead were members of the team that was second in Stratum B of the stratified Swiss teams on September 2. James and Linda Stahl of Chagrin Falls with Thomas and Janet Rice of Cleveland were second in Stratum C of the same event.
John and Judy Spooner of Strongsville were second in the evening 299er pairs on September 3. Sandra and Richard Fleischman of Beachwood with Jan Assini and Peter Grover of Aurora were second in Stratum A of the evening Swiss teams on the same day. Kenneth and Laurie Kranyak of Bay Village were members of the team that tied for first in Stratum A of the morning Swiss teams. James and Linda Stahl of Chagrin Falls with Thomas and Janet Rice of Cleveland were first in Stratum C of the same event.
Julia Allen of Willoughby and Gary Sikon of North Royalton were second in Bracket 2 of the Saturday-Sunday bracketed knockout teams. James and Carolyn Sullivan of Richfield were tied for second in the evening open pairs on September 4.
Congratulations to the following local players who have achieved new levels of success in their bridge careers.
Shirley Lundstrom of Cuyahoga Falls has passed the 1,000 master point level and is a silver life master.
Jimmy Dean and Susan Stark of Cleveland have passed the 500 master point level and are bronze life masters.
Brenda Goldberg of Shaker Heights, Stelian Hritcu of North
Olmsted, Lawrence Wise and Tucker Marston of Chagrin Falls have
satisfied all of the requirements and are now life masters.
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Bernstein is
a free-lance writer in Solon.
To reach Harvey Bernstein:
hjb0416@yahoo.com