Page 19 - ABF Newsletter June 2025

Tasmanian Festival of Bridge
Warren Lazer made this difficult 5{ contract in the last round of the Mixed Pairs event:
Board 15. Dealer South. North-South vulnerable.
]K952
[ 10 5 }Q9873 {K9
] A 10 8 7 6
[QJ9763 [842 }6 }AJ52
Pauline Gumby and Warren Lazer Photo from tasbridge.com.au
{ 6
WEST Smith
3[
all pass
1. 21-23. 2. Takeout.
]QJ
[AK
} K 10 4 {AQJ873
] 4 3
{ 10 5 4 2
NORTH Gumby
dbl 2
EAST
de Livera
4[
SOUTH Lazer
2NT 1 5{
tunately, East ruffed the spade winner, and Warren had to overruff and reassess his prospects.
West was now known to have five spades, and was certain to have at least six hearts. Together with the club that she played on the first round of the suit, that left room for at most one diamond. This left East with at least four diamonds – not an easy hold- ing to pick up, with no more entries to dummy.
Warren ran the trumps to reach this ending: ]9
[ 10 }Q98 { —
] 10 8
[J9 [82 }6 }AJ5 {—]—{—
[K
} K 10 4 {8
On the last trump, East had to discard a heart, pro- tecting his diamond guard. Now Warren cashed the [K, stripping East of his last heart, and played a di- amond to the queen. East won the ace, and had to lead away from the jack – with a full count on the hand, Warren inserted the ten to make the contract.
The winners of the Mixed Pairs were Ashley Bach and Arlene Dalley, while Warren and Pauline returned the next day to win the Open Pairs. The winners of the other events were Nigel Rosendorff and Peter Reyn- olds (Senior), Louise Cowan and Susan Bezette (Re- stricted), Jan Van Riel and Margaret Grant (Novice) and Nat Wright and Jo Wright (Rookie).
See the June issue of Australian Bridge Magazine for Warren’s report on the Open Swiss Pairs.
4NT would have been a better spot, as 5{ can be beaten with a diamond ruff, but there is always some doubt that 4NT might be asking for a minor.
West led the [Q, won by the ace. With no indication that an opponent would have five spades, Warren decided to set up a spade trick to discard the poten- tial diamond loser. As there was only one sure entry to dummy, Warren could not afford to draw trumps first; drawing even one round of trumps might allow West to dislodge the {K while the spades are still blocked. So Warren led a spade at trick two.
West won with the ace, and had another chance to score a diamond ruff, but preferred to try to give partner a spade ruff. There were several indicators supporting this choice:
• declarer’s light 2NT opening suggested East had just 0-4 HCP, so East holding the }A was unlikely;
• declarer’s notrump opening was more likely to be 3-2-3-5 rather than 2-2-3-6;
• East’s raise to 4[ on such a weak hand could easily have been based on a singleton spade.
On the other side of the argument, it’s not clear why South would risk attacking spades before drawing trumps, if not holding queen-jack doubleton.
Warren won the spade return, drew two rounds of trumps ending in dummy, and attempted to cash the ]K, after which he was planning to claim. Unfor-
] —
Australian Bridge Federation Ltd. Newsletter: June 2025
Page: 19