Making an impossible slam. Bridge Column for February 25, 2005, Harvey Bernstein Special To The Plain Dealer Neither side vulnerable. North deals. North S: A J 5 H: 8 7 6 5 D: J 6 4 C: A Q 2 West East S: K 10 8 3 S: 9 2 H: Q 3 H: J 9 4 2 D: Q 10 5 D: 7 3 C: J 9 6 4 C: 10 8 7 5 3 South S: Q 7 6 4 H: A K 10 D: A K 9 8 2 C: K The Bidding: North East South West 1C Pass 1D Pass 1NT Pass 2S Pass 3D Pass 4NT Pass 5H Pass 5NT Pass 6C Pass 6D Pass Pass Pass It is a generally accepted concept that every bridge hand is mutually exclusive of every other bridge hand, even though all of us have had the misfortune of sitting through an entire session with absolutely no cards at all. Today's hand, which was submitted by Mark Niemi of Lakewood, may convince you that there is some relationship between hands. On the hand that was played immediately prior to this one, the declarer was also South. He had led a small club towards the queen in the dummy and West had played the ace of clubs, crashing her partner's singletong king. This was followed by a short but emphatic discussion about second hand playing low. Now South finds himself in a very thin diamond slam. Niemi and I agree that the North hand should pass instead of opening one diamond, the hand just does not qualify as an opener in first seat. The bidding after that was somewhat aggressive. If you change the jack of diamonds to the queen in the North hand, there would be nothing to discuss. West led the nine of clubs and South won the king. He cashed the ace of diamonds and led a diamond toward the jack in dummy. West, probably with the last hand still fresh in her mind, played low. The rest was easy. Is there a lesson here? I think so. Try to make the correct play on each hand without regard to previous errors in judgement. You are never going to be right 100% of the time. Once you accept that and try to minimize the errors that you do make, your game will improve a great deal. District 5 of the American Contract Bridge League sponsored the Rock and Roll Regional Bridge Tournament from January 12 to 16 in Independence. The following players were successful in their respective events on January 15. Other results appeared last week, more will be listed in future columns. Morning Swiss Teams (10 teams). Stratum A. 1. Robert Sulgrove, Spring Valley, Richard Rudolph, Westerville, George St. Pierre, Columbus, and Roy Baldwin, Dublin. 2. Bernard Heyman, Shaker Heights, Kathy Pollock, Tonawanda, NY, Fred Schenker, Pittsburgh, PA, and Jay Costello, East Amherst, NY. Stratum B. 1. Raymond De Colibus, Circleville, Jack Rice, Kingston, Lloyd Danner, Gallipolis, and George Pope, Bidwell. 2. John Ricotta, Kenmore, MY, Teresa Fraas, Buffalo, NY, Elaine and Brian Universal, Derby, NY. Afternoon Continuous Pairs (36 pairs). Stratum A. 1. Robert Urmanic, Elyria, and Ronald Kral, Reston, VA. 2. Eva Lefton, Cleveland, and Jacqueline Sharp, Louisville, KY. Stratum B. 1. Lefton and Sharp. 2. Retha Lakins, Akron, and Helen Lloyd, Copley. Stratum C. 1. Lakins and Lloyd. 2. Linda and James Stahl, Chagrin Falls. Evening Continuous Pairs (22 pairs). Stratum A. 1. Robert Urmanic, Elyria, and Ronald Kral, Reston, VA. 2. Jean Warzinski, Bedford, and Irene Toth, Parma. Stratum B. 1. Linda and James Stahl, Chagrin Falls. 2. Linda Beringer and Kristen Kemp, Akron. Afternoon Non-Life-Master Pairs (18 pairs). Stratum A. 1. Kristen Kemp and Linda Beringer, Akron. 2. Marge Spira, Beachwood, and Beverly Nagy, Cleveland. Stratum B. 1. Kemp and Beringer. 2. Nancy Schreck, Solon, and Joanne Stoddard, Sagamore Hills. Unit 125 of the American Contract Bridge League will host the Ohio Master's Sectional Bridge Tournament starting next Friday at the Solon Valley Party Center, 6340 Melbury, Solon. Single session stratified events for players at all levels will be held at 1:30 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. Stratum A will be restricted to players with more than 1,500 master points. The master point range for Stratum B will be 750 to 1,500, and for Stratum C, 0 to 749. A two session Open Pair event will start at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday. The second session will start at 3:30 p.m. This event will be stratified. Stratum A1 will be for players with 2,000 master points or more and Stratum A2 will be for players with less than 2,000 master points. Single session stratified events will be held at the same times for Stratum B (500 to 1,500 master points) and Stratum C (less than 500 master points). Separate events will also be held on Friday and Saturday for players with less than 300 master points. Team events for players of all levels will start at 11:00 a.m. on Sunday. Additional information and partnership assistance is available by calling 440-248-3983. The Unit 125 web site can be found at http://www.whistclub.org _______________________________________________________ Bernstein is a free-lance writer in Solon. To reach Harvey Bernstein: hjb19@adelphia.net