There can’t be a bridge tournament much more enjoyable than the one we have just played in Madeira. It starts with three days of Pairs (292 pairs registered) followed by three days of Teams (129). My teammates Thor Erik Hoftaniska and Christian Bakke came second in the Pairs but more was to come. We played 12 matches of eight boards each, and won 11 of them. That was enough to win the Teams trophy!
I was playing with Thomas (Charlie) Charlsen who I knew had studied lots of suit combinations, but they almost never came up. Then, suddenly, this hand appears where for once, the right play in a suit is crucial (see diagram).
Both of us pushed the boat out slightly and, as a consequence, the final contract was a delicate one.
West started with the ♦9 round to declarer’s Jack. Even if Spades break, you need to find something in the Heart suit. Would you have known that the best play in the suit is to run the ♥Q?
Charlie did, and presented this card at trick two. West gave it a good look but finally decided to play low, correctly. The top two Spades came next, followed by a Club to dummy to test the Spades with the Queen, but no luck. A quick recount shows that he needed one more trick from somewhere, but now it was not so difficult; Charlie cashed his Clubs in hand, went back to dummy with the Ace of Hearts and threw East in with a Spade. As he had hoped, East had only Diamonds left and had to give declarer two more tricks there.
3♦, 4♠, 2♥ and 3♣ for 12 tricks and a lovely swing in!
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