AS I mentioned in last week’s column, we have had two weeks of STAC games with a number of players figuring in the District-wide overall placings throughout Ottawa, to which our unit is attached. I can’t name all the local placings here but certainly anything in the top three deserves mention.

WINNERS

Flight A, Monday, June 4 (103 pairs)

Roman Smolski-Vera Petty, 78.75%

Wednesday, June 13 (16 pairs)

Marilynn Simmons-Bill Tucker, 65>

Flight B, Wednesday, June 13 (16 pairs)

Lynanne Bolton-Greta Marshall, 60.42%

Friday, June 15 (138 pairs)

John Glynn-Bill Pare, 63.6B>

Flight C, Wednesday, June 6 (163 pairs)

Charles Pearman-Ernest Paynter, 67.

SECOND PLACE

Flight A, Monday, June 4 (103 pairs)<$>

Bill Tucker-John Burville, 66.25%

Wednesday, June 6, afternoon (190 pa)<$>

Vera Petty-Roman Smolski, 65.65%

Wednesday, June 6, evening (163 ps)<$>

Vera Petty-Roman Smolski, 74.74%

Wednesday, June 13 (16 pairs)

Jean Johnson-Elizabeth McKee, 83%

Flight B, Wednesday, June 6 (163 pairs)

Charles Pearman-Ernest Paynter, 67.71%

Flight C, Monday, June 4 (223irs)<$>

Gordon Bussell-Patricia Hayward, 63.83%

THIRD PLACINGS

Flt A: <$>Lynanne Bolton-Greta Marshall, John Glynn-Bill Pare

Fht B: <$>Gordon Bussell-Pat Hayward

ght C: <$>Louise Rodger-Dorry Lusher, Richard Gray-Wendy Gray

Great results all round with Smolski-Petty doing well as usual and collecting 33 master points over the two weeks of play.

Today&#7;s hand<$> came up at the Bridge Club the last time I played, about a month ago, and is one of those infuriating ‘choice’ hands at pairs, but would have been a no-brainer at Teams.

See if you can spot the ‘pairs dilemma’!

Dealer North

N/S VulnerableNorth

[spade]K 8 7 6

[heart]A K 2

[diamond]A J 2

ub]K J 10

South

[spade]A Q J 5 2

[heart]6 3

[diamond]K 6 3

[club]A 8 6The bidding at our table was pretty simple:North South<$>

1[club] (1) 1[spade] (2)

3[spade] (3) 6[spade] (4)

Pass1. Precision 16 + HCP.

2. 8 + HCP at least 5 spades.

3. 19-21 HCP with spade support.

4. I was aware that a grand-slam might be makeable but there was too much to find out (usually is, when two balanced hands face each other) and six spades had to be a reasonable spot.

West led a trump and I was happy we were in the right spot but unhappy that I had a ‘boom or bust” decision to make. I could either try to make all 13 tricks and risk going down, or I could guarantee my contract — which is why this would have been easy at teams.

A couple of things came to mind — firstly, nearly everyone would be in the spade slam with a nine card fit and a combined 33 HCP. If anyone was in no trump they would be forced into guessing the minor suit queens.

The greedy play is to draw trumps, eliminate hearts and then try the diamond finesse — if this fails or succeeds then try to figure out the club suit. In the end, however, I decided to guarantee the contract, leaving the guessing to the no trumpers.

So, draw trumps, ace, king and ruff a heart, now ace-king of diamonds (the queen could fall, but didn’t, and exit with a diamond — whoever wins has to open up the club suit or provide a ruff and discard.

The full hand:North

<$f"ZapfDingbats">|0xab|K 8 7 6

[heart]A K 2

[diamond]A J 2

ub]K J 10

West East

<$f"ZapfDingbats">|0xab|9 4 3 [spade]10

[heart]Q 8 5 [heart]J 10 9 7 4

[diamond]7 5 4 [diamond]Q 10 9 8

[club]7 5 4 2 club]Q 9 3

South

<$f"ZapfDingbats">|0xab|A Q J 5 2

[heart]6 3

[diamond]K 6 3

[club]A 8 6So, what would have been your line of play?