Show BETTER BRIDGE c By C c. H H. H GOREN r r North and South vulnerable West Vest deals North NorthA A I 2 V Q 10 9 7 71 1 2 4 A AA A West Vest East AA 13 15 V 1 Q J 10 9 8 6 4 3 2 7 75 5 A K 6 A J 9 3 South SouthA A Q 10 7 5 V OK K A ee 10 5 4 2 Bidding West Vest North East South 5 Double Pass 5 V y Pass 6 y Pass Pa Pass S SPass Pass Opening lead ace of spades The merits of the protracted huddle before playing to the first trick have through the years been sufficiently str stressed sed by and columnists so that it can serve no good purpose for me to add one small voice in that cause It is here my intention however ho to tomake tomake tomake make the annual award for the most thoughtful play at trick one oneto oneto oneto to Bob Pitard Petard of New Orleans who playing with Dr Richard Greene attained on this hand one of the most glamorous top scores of ot 1948 1918 As for the bidding I r ask not to tobe tobe tobe be called as an arbiter Readers of this column have learned how distasteful it is LS for me to argue with success West's preemptive bid of five diamonds against v vulnerable vulnerable ii- ii opponents was calculated to apply the pressure to them and possibly barricade them out of their best contract Actually it served to goad them into a slam which on normal bidding they probably would never have con con- West Vest opened the ace of spades and the hand is won or lost on declarers declarer's declarers declarer's de de- carer's play from dummy at the very ery first trick Pitard could see that his work was cut out for him The club finesse was to success but that is not all for even with the king favorably lo located located located lo- lo there was still a club loser to fret about unless West Vest held the doubleton king-jack king which would take care of itself There was a good chance that West's Vests ace was a singleton At any rate the chances chanc of East holding the jack of spades was 3 very good so that on that basis it was safe to discard the the- king of spades from dummy The reason for this unblocking play will presently be seen If East holds a club stopper in the form of the guarded jack he may not be able to hold onto everything as the myriads of trumps are run runby runby b by declarer West Vest continued with ith the queen of diamonds After trumps were drawn South took the club finesse which held and when the king fell under the ace things began to look lookup up When all but one of the trumps had been led this was the holding North East South 2 J 9 8 Q 10 7 y V 10 V y none V y none 4 None 4 none 4 nono none nonoA A r 7 3 A r AJ J A r 10 On the lead of the last heart from dummy East finds it impossible impossible impossible sible to discard safely Note how differently the hand develops if North has retained the king of spades at the very first trick Copyright 1949 C. C H. H Gor Goren n. n |