Contract Bridge

The first McConnell Cup, emblematic of victory in the women’s world team championship, was won in 1994 by a U.S. team composed of Marinesa Letizia, Rozanne Pollack, Sue Picus, Judi Radin and Jill Blanchard.

Today’s deal was a key one for the winners. When it was first played, the bidding went as shown. Letizia, the declarer, ruffed the opening club lead and cashed the ace of hearts. She then ruffed a heart, a club, a heart and another club before cashing the A-K of trumps to produce this position, with declarer needing two more tricks: Letizia now led a diamond to the queen, and East, who had failed to unblock the club ace, was helpless. If she won the diamond with the ace, the only tricks she could score were the spade queen and club ace, with declarer winning either the ten and king of diamonds or the king of diamonds and a heart. If instead East ducked the first diamond, declarer would play a heart to produce the same result. Four spades, making four, was worth 420 points.

At the other table, things took a decidedly different turn when East bid one notrump over the one-heart opening and everyone passed. East finished with eight tricks for a score of 120 points. This, plus the 420 gained at the first table, gave the Letizia team a pickup of 11 IMPs in a match they won by just 5 IMPs.

Tomorrow: Haste makes

waste.