Bridge

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It is with huge sadness that I heard of the passing of Mary Jane Coelho after a period of extended ill health and our thoughts and prayers are with her family with whom she was so close. Mary Jane was a fixture at the Club for many years and was a fine player with many titles to her credit . She was a strong personality who was tough at the table, but had a great sense of humour and fun and even though she has not been a regular of late, will be hugely missed by her friends and her fellow bridge players.

Also, away from Bermuda Jaime Ortiz Patino , a fine player and the man who in many ways was the making of the World Bridge Federation passed away at the age of 83 …he visited Bermuda more than once , including during the 2000 Orbis Bermuda Bowl championship and I had the pleasure of playing with him and also at the Golf Club he owned and took to world prominence , Valderrama in Spain which hosted the Ryder Cup.

May they both rest in peace.

This week’s hand is a perfect example of looking for problems when all looks perfect, and once you find the problem taking steps to cope with it.

Game All. Dealer South

C 1086

H Q6

D Q10764

S 964

C 4 C 532

H 8754 H KJ932

D AK83 D J952

S J952 S3

C AKQJ97

H A10

D None

S AKQ75

South opened a strong 2 Clubs , North bid a negative 2diamonds and after South bid 2 Spades North jumped to four spades showing a bad hand…..South , understandably then tried the Spade Slam

West led the ace of diamonds and, after dummy went

down, declarer paused to consider his options.

Obviously, there were twelve easy tricks if the clubs

were 3-2. There would not be a problem if clubs were

4-1 and the trumps were 2-2 for, after drawing trumps,

he would be able to ruff a club and make a long club

as a trick. Declarer saw that difficulties would arise if

clubs were 4-1 and the player with the singleton had

three trumps. He saw that little could be done if West

had that layout but there was still a chance it were

East who began with the tricky black-suit layout.

Declarer’s first move was to ruff the diamond lead

with the ace of trumps and cash the ace of clubs. Next

he crossed to dummy by leading the seven of trumps

to the eight. On a club from dummy, East was caught

in a dilemma. If he ruffed, the club suit would be good;

declarer would then be able to draw trumps, run his

club winners, throwing a heart from table, and make

his twelfth trick by ruffing a heart in dummy.

At the table, East discarded a heart on the second

round of clubs and declarer won the trick with the

king of clubs. Then he returned to dummy with the

ten of trumps and led dummy’s last club. Again East

decided to discard and the queen of clubs won the

trick. After ruffing the five of clubs in dummy, declarer

then ruffed a diamond back to hand, drew trumps

and claimed twelve tricks six trumps, a heart, four

clubs and a club ruff.

Well thought out and beautifully played !!

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