Today sees the staging of the Bermuda Bridge Club Open Pairs Championship which is a two-session event starting at 9.30am at the club. We will hopefully see a strong field with all the regular pairs playing, and I’ll bring you a full report next week.

As always, if you are playing in the event and come across a hand of interest please send it to me – not many make the cut, but it’s always good for me to cover a hand from the actual event.

This week’s hand is probably aimed more at the advanced plus/expert player, but there is a lot to learn here for every player. The hand (see Figure 1) is all about gaining information, and then using that to make the right play.

North opened one club, East jumped to three spades and, being vulnerable against not, decided to play 3NT instead of doubling for penalties (on a heart lead three spades actually goes down at least four tricks).

West led the Queen of hearts. Declarer played low from dummy at trick one but covered the Jack of hearts continuation with the King. When the latter held, declarer paused to assess his chances.

On the assumption that East had the King of spades, declarer counted eight winners in total. While a winning diamond finesse would win the day, the bidding suggested that the odds were against East holding the King. As the heart suit appeared to be 5-2, declarer decided to gather more information.

At trick three, he called for dummy’s Jack of spades. East covered this with the King and declarer took this with the Ace. Next, declarer cashed the Queen of spades on which West threw a diamond, confirming that the suit was originally divided 1-7. Declarer then ran the club suit, with East discarding a spade and West a diamond on the thirteenth club.

Figure 2 shows the position now, with declarer having made seven tricks.

Declarer now knew that East had started with a 7-2-1-3 shape, giving East a singleton diamond which was unlikely to be the King. So, instead of leading a diamond, declarer called for dummy’s nine of hearts, West took three heart tricks with the Ace, ten and five.

Declarer threw three low diamonds from his hand and another low diamond from dummy on the hearts, reducing to the Ace-Jack of diamonds opposite the Queen-six in dummy. As West had only the King doubleton of diamonds remaining, declarer would take the last two tricks for his contract no matter which diamond West played next.

Well investigated, well thought out, and well played!

• Longstanding members will be sad to learn that Charles Pearman passed away last Sunday. Although he had not played bridge at the club for quite some time, he was a longstanding member and was popular throughout his tenure. Our thoughts are with his family and close friends.

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

BRIDGE CLUB RESULTS

Friday, March 15

1. Tony Saunders-Margaret Way

2. Judith Bussell-Charles Hall

3. Rachael Gosling-Makiko Rogers

Monday, March 18

North/South

1. Rachael Gosling-Margaret Way

2. Elysa Burland-Gretta Marshall

3. Betsy Baillie-Joyce Pearson

East/West

1. Charles Hall-Marion Silver

2. Wendy Gray-Richard Gray

3. Linda Pollett-Kirsty Pollett

Tuesday, March 19

North/South

1. Barbara Elkin-Sarah Jane Varley

2. Stuart Clare-Sarah Bowers

East/West

1. Tracey Pitt-Desiree Woods

2. Malcolm Moseley-Keri McKittrick

Wednesday, March 20

North/South

1. Louise Rodger-Margaret Way

2. Charles Hall-Tony Saunders

3. Gertrude Barker-Jane Smith

East/West

1. Peter Donnellan-Lynanne Bolton

2. Sheena Rayner-Molly Taussig

3. Caroline Svensen-Dianna Kempe

Thursday, March 21

1. Rachael Gosling-John Glynn

2. Betsy Baillie-Lisa Ferrari

3. David Petty-Tim Mardon