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olly Lisle, a novelist who also gives classes for budding authors, wrote, ,f you don t accept re sponsibility for your own actions, then you are for ever chained to a position of defense.

hen a bridge player is on defense, he usu ally taNes responsibility for his actions although sometimes he needs to be guided by his partner.

Today s deal occurred during the bron e medal playoff in the Polish League Final Four. This was the first live bridge event in Poland since the coronavirus locNdown. ,t was played in arsaw over the last weeNend of -une.

itting ast and est were lod imier tarNowsNi and 0ichal .wiecien. They defeated four spades. LooNing at all cards, can you see how they did it after est led the diamond ace

ast s three diamond response was pre emptive. ith game invitational values or more, he would have responded two no trump. This pushed 1orth outh into the thin game.

pside down signals have been the norm in Poland forever. They even lead low from doubletons and the middle card from a tripleton. (The first time , used those methods, , was ama ed how well they worNed. nder est s diamond ace, ast signaled with the , the high card showing an odd number and the very high card being a suit preference signal for hearts. o, at tricN two, est shifted to a heart.

Declarer played a trump off the board, but ast hopped up with the Ning and returned his second heart. Then, when est got in with his spade ace, he gave his partner a heart ruff.

rilliant