ACES ON BRIDGE

Long ago at national tournaments, there would be only one serious event taking place at any one time. These days, secondary events generally run opposite the main tournament. These may be, for example, events for Seniors, or for those with a limited number of masterpoints. In Reno, Nevada, last spring when the final round of the Swiss Teams for players with fewer than 10,000 masterpoints began, there were three teams in contention for first place. Jerry Stamatov’s team finished second, thanks to this deal. For the record, after the artificial start to the auction, an exchange of natural calls followed by cue-bidding had seen South reach the top spot. Stamatov won the lead of the diamond 10 in hand, drew two rounds of trumps to find the bad but not fatal news, then needed to reduce his spade holding in hand to play for a trump coup. He played the ace, king and a third club, which he ruffed as East followed suit. A diamond to the ace and a diamond ruff saw East pitch a heart. Now came the heart king and a heart to the ace, and when East followed suit, declarer was home in the three-card ending. On the lead of the diamond jack, if East ruffed, Stamatov would overruff, draw the last trump and claim. If East discarded, declarer would pitch his heart, then lead a plain card from dummy, and East’s apparent trump trick would vanish. In the other room, they played seven no-trump down three, for a huge swing to Stamatov’s team.