Bridge Blog 1093: Learning Curve

Airport Bridge Club manager Bill Finkelstein characterizes himself as the best bridge teacher in Buffalo, but he hasn’t demonstrated it since an illness put him out of commission for a couple months back in 2011.

I’m an alumnus of his earlier classes and for many a moon I’d often hear his voice in my head as I was tempted to make a dumb play (not often enough, my partners might say). At any rate, after eight years, my flagging wisdom was much in need of a booster shot, so when he announced he was going to hold classes on four Wednesday mornings (10 a.m. through Aug. 14), I knew I needed to be there.

The format took me back to those Saturday morning classes 10 years ago – we bid the hands to a contract under his watchful eye, the erroneous players being corrected so that everyone reached the same contract, and then came the pause while he gave thumbs up or thumbs down to the opening leads. He also gave a slight hint as play began.

For this first hand on Wednesday, July 17, a 4 Spade contract, he suggested simply that it was a test of the defenders. The defenders all failed. Nobody beat the contract.

North:

Spades: A-J-7; Hearts: Q-8-3; Diamonds: A-J-10-7-6-5; Clubs: K.

East:

Spades: 5; Hearts: A-K-J-10-9-7; Diamonds: 9-8-4-2; Clubs: 10-9.

South:

Spades: K-Q-10-9-8-6; Hearts: 6-5-4; Diamonds: 3; Clubs: A-Q-6.

The bidding:

North    East              South    West

1D         2H         2S          Pass

3S          Pass              4S          All Pass

The lead from West was the 2 of Hearts, though that had to be corrected at a couple tables. At our table, declarer (South) played a low Heart from the dummy and East came up with the Ace, then led the King and a low Heart so that West could ruff it. But those were the only three tricks they got. South took six Spades, the Ace of Diamonds and three Clubs.

The key to defeating the contract, Bill pointed out, was the play of the first few cards. East holds all the high Hearts except for the ones in the dummy, so the first trick could be won with the Jack or even the 7, depending what was played. 

With that, East can win three Heart tricks and West doesn't have to ruff. Yet. Now West, realizing there are two discards ahead, needed to throw away not Clubs, but the Queen and King of Diamonds. An alert East then would lead a Diamond on the fourth trick, allowing West to win it with the 2 of Spades. Down one.

I told Bill later that I thought this hand was full of detail for the beginners among us in the class, but in retrospect, it’s a beauty. Everyone at my table said they never would have considered discarding the Diamonds and thought the strategy was brilliant. A great start for the lessons and it apparently did me a bit of good. Paired up with an extremely good player, Tom Fraas, we put together a 61.11% game, first overall, 3.56 points. I’ll be back for another lesson next Wednesday.