Find the winning play.
Bridge Column for March 5, 2000, By HARVEY BERNSTEIN
Neither side vulnerable.  North deals.
                              NORTH
                              S: A 3 2          
                              H: 9 8 2       
                              D: A K Q 9 8 2 
                              C: 4          
            WEST                             EAST
            S: J 8 6 5                       S: K            
            H: 6 3                           H: A J 10 7 5 
            D: 10 7 6                        D: 4 3               
            C: A Q 10 2                      C: K J 6 5 3   
                              SOUTH                         
                              S: Q 10 9 7 4 
                              H: K Q 4      
                              D: J 5    
                              C: 9 8 4    
          The Bidding://
                  NORTH    EAST    SOUTH    WEST                  
                   1D       1H      1S      Pass 
                   4S      Pass     Pass    Pass
     Thanks to Dr. Karl Zaman of Strongsville for sending me this
hand from the last round of the Flight B/C Stratified Swiss Teams
at the Ohio Master's Sectional Bridge Tournament which was held
in Solon last month.  
     Zaman sat South.  His partner was Dennis Bushman of
Strongsville.  Their team mates were Gary Sikon of Huron, and
Julia Allen of Willoughby.  At this point in the event, Zaman's
team was in first place and it appeared that their lead was large
enough to ensure victory.
     For those who have never competed in this type of event,
each match results in the teams being awarded "Victory Points"
based on the International Match Point (IMP) outcome of the
match.  There are 30 victory points available.  If the teams tie,
they are each awarded 15 of those points.  So, depending on the
size of your win (or loss) you could earn anywhere from zero to
30 victory points on each match.
     With a 23 point lead, the Zaman team had to earn a minimum
of five victory points to finish in first place.  But a match
consists of only seven hands and after six were played, it did
not appear that they would win the necessary points.
     It was at this point that the hand shown above came into
play.  Bushman opened one diamond and East over called one heart. 
Zaman bid one spade and Bushman raised to game.  
     West led the six of hearts.  East won the ace and returned
the five.  Zaman won the queen and led a small spade to the ace,
dropping the singleton king from East.  A small diamond was led
to the jack.  Two more rounds of diamonds allowed Zaman to
discard the king of hearts.  
     The four of clubs was led from the dummy.  East played low
and West won the ten.  As the cards lie, West must return a trump
at this point, but he didn't see it and led the ace of clubs. 
Zaman trumped in dummy and led a heart, trumping with the queen
of spades in hand.  He now led his last club and trumped that
card with North's last spade.  Here was the three card ending:
                              NORTH
                              S:                
                              H:             
                              D: Q 9 8 
                              C:            
            WEST                             EAST
            S: J 8 6                         S:              
            H:                               H: J 10     
            D:                               D:                   
            C:                               C: K           
                              SOUTH                         
                              S: 10 9 7   
                              H:            
                              D:        
                              C:
     Zaman led a diamond from the dummy and trumped with the ten
of spades.  West won the trick with the jack and found himself
well and truly end played, with nobody else to blame.  All he had
to do was under trump instead of winning this trick, and he would
have been able to win the last two tricks, defeating the
contract.  As it was, he was forced to lead from the 8-6 of
spades into the 9-7 of spades, allowing the contract to make.
     At the companion table, North-South bid and made two spades. 
Zaman's team pick up 7 IMPs for bidding and making the non
vulnerable game.  While they lost the match, they were able to
pick up 6 victory points and hold on to first place.
_____________________________________________________________________