October was ACBL Club Appreciation Month and local duplicate clubs were authorized to hold special games with slightly higher masterpoint awards. The Beachwood Duplicate Bridge Club meets on Saturdays at 11:30 a.m. at the Beachwood Recreation Center on the corner of Richmond Road and Fairmount Boulevard. Steve Vrooman of Beachwood is the director. October 25 was designated as one of the "special" club appreciation games.
I held the North cards and my partner, Mort Pierce of Chagrin Falls, sat South. Pierce opened the bidding with one spade and West made a two heart overcall. Holding next to nothing, I passed. East made a two spade cue bid. Pierce bid three diamonds. West, holding nothing more than the cards required for his first bid, passed and I re-evaluated the situation.
It appeared that Pierce had a good hand with spades and diamonds. My queen of diamonds could not hurt, and the singleton heart should limit heart tricks for the defense. Add this to the fact that the opponents were vulnerable and we were not. If I passed, East would bid three or four hearts, depending on the strength of his hand.
Taking all of this information into consideration, I took what is called an "advance sacrifice" by bidding four spades. I did not feel I was risking much and the opponents would now have to "guess" at the five level.
Much to my surprise, four spades became the final contract and was not doubled. Even more to my surprise, after the king of hearts was led, Pierce quickly scored ten tricks to make this game.
We were fortunate to find the spade suit breaking favorably. Plus 420 was the top score on this board and helped us to a 68% game and first overall with 25 tables in play.
It is interesting to note that East-West cannot, as the
cards lie, make four hearts. They have to lose two diamonds, one
club, and one spade. If the spade suit was divided in such a way
that East-West could avoid losing a trick in that suit, four
hearts would make and four spades would be defeated one or
possibly two tricks. In either case, it is correct to bid four
spades with the North-South cards.
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Bernstein is
a free-lance writer in Solon.