The pandemic is now, thankfully, a distant memory but the impact on every area of our existence was huge. For bridge players, however, there was some relief with the ability to play online bridge, in which participation absolutely exploded.

Bridge Base Online was the gold standard and their hourly games would often attract between 300 and 500 pairs. It is a marvellous site and for many years Online Bridge and BBO became interchangeable.

BBO is great for social bridge but not for competitive events as it is too vulnerable to abuse and cheating – partners sitting in the same room and seeing each other’s hands, partners on Whatsapp with each other while the bidding and play were in progress and other ways of exchanging information. As such, no major competitions could be hosted on BBO.

But now we have the new kid on the block, Realbridge, which uses cameras so that all four players are in full view just as at the Bridge Club in person. This has led to major national and international events being held using Realbridge and that is only going to continue to get bigger.

The Bermuda Bridge Club has, thankfully, stayed abreast of these developments and last week tournament director Peter Donnellan sent a message to all members.

Here is an extract: “Realbridge is similar in many respects to BBO, but it has the added feature of being able to see partners and opponents (if they have cameras on their laptops/computer) making it a more sociable activity.

“It is also now available for us to organise online club games if there is sufficient interest, and we are considering arranging an evening online (open) game, recognising that some members are now reluctant to drive in the dark, etc, but would welcome the chance for some evening bridge.

“There is also a regular Caribbean-wide game on Wednesday evenings at 6pm, also on Realbridge, in which Bermuda pairs would be most welcome.

“Using the Realbridge platform would also be good practice for those who, in future, might wish to take part in international events. Rachael Gosling and Sharon Shanahan, who played in the January Realbridge event, will be happy to share their experience of the competition and the Realbridge platform.

“Judy King has kindly undertaken the role of organising our online activities, and would like to hear from you if you are interested in a Realbridge club game or in playing in future online competitions. Please speak to her or e-mail her at Judyking1@gmail.com so she can gauge interest.”

So there you go – yet another exciting option available to the addicts among you – and I know who you are!

I love today’s hand (see Figure 1). It is all about patience, planning and simple counting in order to make the correct key decision. Players are in too much of a rush to grab tricks and as a result they make plays without doing the hard graft of finding out more about the opponents’ hands first.

This deal came up in a team game and at both tables South opened 2NT, and though both North players were tempted to probe for a grand slam they decided to bid the sensible 6NT which, if it makes, will never be a bad score. Both West players led an obvious ten of spades.

At the first table, the declarer won the first trick in hand with the Queen of spades and immediately laid down the Ace of clubs. When West discarded a heart, the slam could no longer be made. Declarer had to lose heart trick and a club trick for one down.

At the other table, the declarer saw clearly that the slam depended on making five tricks in clubs. This declarer also saw that there was no hurry to play clubs. Instead, he sought to gather information about how the major suits lay before turning his tackling the club suit.

So, knowing that even if the clubs came in there were never 13 tricks on the hand, at trick two he played a low heart from both hands. East won the trick with the ten of hearts and returned a spade to declarer’s Ace.

Declarer now started exploring – he played the king of spades next, noting that the suit was originally 5=2. Next, he cashed the Ace and King of hearts, noting that West began with five hearts together with his five spades.

There could be a temptation to play on clubs next. However, declarer resisted this and cashed the Ace of diamonds first. West was now marked with ten cards in the majors and at least one diamond: so, he could not hold three clubs – the only person who could hold three clubs was East!

Thus, declarer called for dummy’s King of clubs and claimed 12 tricks once West discarded a spade. There was a tiny risk for the second declarer to go down more than one if the major suit plays were not as revealing as on this deal but the pay-off was huge.

Take a really good look at this hand and absorb what happened – declarer identified that the club suit was uniquely crucial, he saw that it was safe to duck a heart to get a better count, and then, after that, all he needed to do was count to 13 in each suit. Not that difficult!

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

BRIDGE CLUB RESULTS

Friday, April 4

1 Jane Smith/Margaret Way

2 Lorna Anderson/Joyce Pearson

3 Stephen Cosham/Rachael Gosling

Monday, April 7

North/South

1. Elysa Burland/Molly Taussig

2. Rachael Gosling/Margaret Way

3. Allyson Eadie/Aida Bostelmann

East/West

1 Lorna Anderson/Heather Woolf

2 Peter Donnellan/Lynanne Bolton

3 Judith Bussell/Lisa Rhind

Tuesday, April 8

North/South

1 Julia Tadman/Joshimar Hussey

2 Tracey Pitt/Desiree Woods

3 Sandra Ogden/Sally Irvine

East/West

1 Amanda Ingham/Heidi Dyson

2 Malcolm Moseley/Mark Stevens

3 Jamie Sapsford/Jane Downing

Wednesday, April 9

North/South

1 Desmond Nash/Tracy Nash

2 Louise Rodger/Margaret Way

East/West

1 Elizabeth McKee/Rachael Gosling

2 Patricia Siddle/Diana Diel

Thursday, April 10

1 Erika Jones/Margaret Way

2 Martha Ferguson/Judy King

3 Gertrude Barker/John F W Glynn