Yesterday saw the start of the five-day Bermuda Sectional, where players not only get to play a lot of bridge but can also earn valuable silver points towards their next target in the bridge rankings ladder.

Jack Rhind, the tournament director, will oversee the various events which are as follows:

• November 7, 12.30pm, Open Pairs Single Session

• November 8, 9.30am, Open Pairs Single Session

• November 8, 2pm, Open Pairs Single Session

• November 9, 10am and 2pm, Open Teams Double Session

• November 10, 12.30pm, Open Pairs Single Session

• November 11, 7pm, Open and 99er sessions

Looking at the turnout in the recent Club Teams Championship, the Sectional promises to see a lot of tables in play over the five days — see full results in next week’s column.

Today’s hand (see Figure 1) is a great example of a declarer thinking through most of the problem ahead of him but then not going all the way there, and as a result falling at the last hurdle.

South opened one club and, after North bid a heart, he rebid 1NT — North now had an easy raise to 3NT.

After this simple auction, West led the Jack of spades, covered by the Queen and King. Declarer saw that he could only make the contract if both minor-suit finesses succeeded. So, after winning the Ace of spades, declarer led the Jack of diamonds and ran it when West followed with a low card.

West again played low when declarer led the ten of diamonds, which won the trick. Happy with the way things were going, Declarer now continued with the eight of diamonds to the nine and Queen.

Next, declarer cashed the Ace of diamonds and ran the nine of clubs. When that held, declarer continued with a second winning finesse in clubs. Alas, West discarded a heart and the contract could no longer be made down one!

You can see where declarer went wrong …. the mistake he made was playing for four diamond tricks by letting the ten of diamonds hold, essentially playing for an overtrick if he was able to make five tricks in the club suit.

Instead, he should have settled for three diamond tricks by overtaking the ten on the second diamond play with dummy's Queen.

The difference is that after declarer runs the nine of clubs and then finesses the ten of clubs, he still has the Ace of diamonds as an entry to take a third winning club finesse. Then he can cash the Ace of clubs to make five tricks in the suit.

There would still be a chance for a ninth trick even if clubs proved to be 0-5. He would then need to find the diamonds 3-3 — an unlikely but possible scenario!

In essence, what declarer missed was that if he could bring in five club tricks, he did not need four diamond tricks to make his contract — that turned out to be a fatal error!

• David Ezekiel can be reached at davidezekiel999@gmail.com

BRIDGE CLUB RESULTS

Monday, November 3

North/South

1 John Burville/Molly Taussig

2= Richard Gray/Wendy Gray

2= Rachael Gosling/Margaret Way

East/West

1 Sancia Garrison/Jane Smith

2 Patricia Siddle/Diana Diel

3= Susan Hodge/John Hodge

3= Stephanie Kyme/Martha Ferguson

Tuesday, November 4

North/South

1 Tracey Pitt/David Leach

2 Ross Cooper/Desiree Woods

East/West

1 Jean Schilling/Heidi Dyson

2 Julia Radman/Joshimar Hussey

Wednesday, November 5

North/South

1 Charles Hall/Margaret Way

2 Sheena Rayner/Magda Farag

East/West

1 Susan Hodge/John Hodge

2 Gertrude Barker/Jane Smith

Thursday November 6

1 Judith Bussell/Margaret Way

2 Charles Hall/Stephanie Kyme

3 Peter Donnellan/Lynanne Bolton