Bridge in the Tri-Cities: Team Game Winners

*3-card support

Opening Lead: King of hearts

John Feo, Larry Lang, Lynne Paasch, and Andy Hesser teamed up for the Tri-City Sectional Bridge Tournament and won both the team games. This hand is one of the 130 that they played in those two events.

The Bidding: North opened 1C so that he could rebid with a jump to 2NT, or reverse to 2D if the opponents bid hearts. His partner had just enough to bid 1S. West used the vulnerability to muddy the water and put in a takeout double. Theredouble was “support” and promised three cards in spades. What should North call after East bids 2H and it comes back to him? North decided to bid 3H, which caused South severe heartburn! No call seemed right to him, so he chose 4C and the final contract became 4S.

The Play: Lucky for our home town team, the trumps split 3/3 and their opponents managed to only win one diamond trick! 4S was bid and made!

The Result: At the other table, 2S was bid and made just two, which resulted in an 11 International Match Points (IMP) gain. Had they gone down one, they would have lost 7 IMP and the match.

This story was originally published June 11, 2016 at 6:34 PM with the headline "Bridge in the Tri-Cities: Team Game Winners."