The first major tournament of the year kicks off this morning with the staging of the two session Men’s and Ladies’ Pairs Championships. I’ll bring you the full results next week and with most of the top pairs entering this promises to be an exciting event.

Something a bit different this week — a declarer play quiz. I am not going to give you the answer this week as it becomes too easy to get lazy and flick to it. You have a week in which to solve it and the solution will be in next week’s column. It is not easy and it took me a while to get to the right answer.

Don’t give up, keep the hand with you and keep trying until you get there (Fig 1).

At the table South opened the hand one Heart and soon found himself in the heart slam — how do you make 12 tricks?

Declarer did it at the table just looking at two hands — see if you can solve it looking at all four Answers next week — if you think you have it solved before then drop me an e-mail at dez@vlm.bm

As there is a little bit of space left, let’s revisit an old chestnut on suit combinations

How do you play AQ874 opposite 6532?

How do you play AQ87 opposite 6532?

The first one is easy. If the person sitting under the AQ987 has Kx you can bring in the suit for no losers, so you play a low card towards the AQ and put in the Queen if LHO opponent plays low — if it loses you hope Hearts were 2-2 or you have yet another heart loser.

The second one? Well, it is a bit different as there is no way to play this suit for no losers, no matter how the opposing cards lie. Take a good look at that as once you realise that you have at least one loser in the suit you can then concentrate on avoiding an extra loser.

So, on this combination I suggest you cash the Ace first, if the King comes down all is clear and you then deal with it, If, as in most cases, the Ace only draws two low cards, you now cross to the other hand and lead a low card towards the now remaining Q8. If LHO plays low you have a decision to make, and if you think RHO started with Kx you may refuse to play the Queen, and when RHO now plays the King you have restricted your losers to one in this suit. As in the case shown in Fig 2.

Notice that if you played a low card to the Queen on this combination you have two certain losers.

I’ll keep bashing on about this, so take a good look and try and see what I am trying to get at.

One more teaser for your brain before you leave, go back to AQ874 opposite 6532 — how would you play this at Teams if you were in a slam that will make you, if you can, avoid losing more than one trick in this suit?

I’ve given you enough hints.

• Bridge Results for week of February 11

Monday afternoon

North/South

1. Elysa Burland/Sancia Garrison

2. Edward Betteto/Charles Hall

3. Geoff Bell/Kathleen Bell

East/West

1. George Correia/Lorna Anderson

2. Joseph Wakefield/Elizabeth McKee

3. Michael Bickley/Harry Kast

Tuesday evening junior game

North/South

1. Sarah Lorimer Turner/Noula Contibas

2. Wenda Krupp/Joanne Edwards

3. Katyna Rabain/Louise Payne

East/West

1. Levy Rodrigues/Patricia Rodrigues

2. Richard Hall/Alex Ribaroff

3. Marion Silver/Duncan Silver

Wednesday morning

North/South

1. Louise Rodger/Elizabeth McKee

2. Alan Douglas/Lisa Ferrari

3. Judith Bussell/Peter Donnellan

East/West

1. Gertrude Barker/Jane Smith

2. Patricia Siddle/Marilynn Simmons

3. Christine Lloyd Jennings/Joyce Pearson

Thursday evening

North/South

1. Judith Bussell/Diana Diel

2. Claude Guay/Sharon Shanahan

3. Alan Douglas/Edward Betteto

East/West

1. David Sykes/Mr Ram

2. Wendy Gray/Richard Gray

3. Nick Kempe/Delton Outerbridge

Friday afternoon

North/South

1. Elysa Burland/Magda Farag

2. Betsy Baillie/Alan Douglas

3. Gertrude Barker/Marilynn Simmons

East/West

1. John Glynn/Molly Taussig

2. Patricia Colmet/Caroline Svensen

3. Elizabeth McKee/Diana Diel