A new star on the horizon.
Bridge Column for December 9, 2005, Harvey Bernstein
Special To The Plain Dealer
East-West vulnerable.  West deals.
                              North
                              S: 4                
                              H: 7 5         
                              D: K J 8 4 2   
                              C: K Q J 4 2 
            West                             East
            S: A 6                           S: K Q J 9 5 2  
            H: A Q 9 8 2                     H: 10 4 3     
            D: Q 7 5 3                       D: A 6               
            C: 8 3                           C: 7 6         
                              South                         
                              S: 10 8 7 3
                              H: K J 6      
                              D: 10 9      
                              C: A 10 9 5 
          The Bidding:  
                   West   North     East   South                  
                    1H     2NT       4H     5C  
                   Pass    Pass     Pass
     Thanks to Bradley Sevcik of Youngstown for this hand from a
recent sectional bridge tournament.  Sevcik is a ten year old
bridge student of Paul Neidlenger of Youngstown.  The hand has
been rotated so that the declarer (Sevcik) is shown as South.
     West opened the bidding with one heart.  North, Robert
Carroll of Warren bid two no trump.  This was an excellent use of
the unusual no trump convention.  With favorable vulnerability,
Carroll had five diamonds and five clubs and all of his high card
strength was concentrated in those two suits.
     East, with three hearts, the ace of diamonds and a solid six
card spade suit, jumped to four hearts in an attempt to close out
the ten year old player on his left.  Sevcik reasoned that his
hearts were very poorly placed and that four hearts was an odds
on favorite to make.  His five club bid put a great deal of
pressure on the opponents.  
     Put yourself in the West seat.  You only have twelve high
card points and you know that North only has three cards in the
major suits.  On the other side of the table, East only has ten
points and has no idea that his partner has the ace of spades. 
The only player who was aware of the heart position was Sevcik,
and he wasn't giving that information away.  As a result, neither
defender doubled or even thought of bidding five hearts (or
spades).  During the play, Sevcik lost a spade, two hearts, and
two diamonds for -150 and an excellent result.
     The experience gained through their play on Saturday proved
useful on Sunday when Carroll and Sevcik teamed up with John
Jacobs and Bill Griffiths of Canfield to win the Flight C Swiss
Teams.  It is good to be reminded that age is not a limiting
factor in the wonderful world of competitive bridge.

     The American Contract Bridge League held a regional
tournament in Buffalo, NY from October 25 - 30.  
     Julia Allen of Willoughby was a member of the teams that
came in first in Bracket 2 of the Wednesday-Thursday Knock Out
Teams and first in Flight B of the B/C/D Swiss Teams on Sunday.
     Jan Assini of Aurora and Richard Early of Cuyahoga Falls
were members of the team that was first in the Swiss Teams on
Thursday.   The were joined by Peter Grover of Aurora on the team
that came in first in Bracket one of the Friday-Saturday Knock
Out Teams.  Sharon Fairchild of Rocky River and Virginia Moody of
Bay Village were members of the team that tied for third in the
same event.
     Assini and Grover teamed with Richard and Sandra Fleischman
of Beachwood to finish eigth in the Flight A Swiss Teams on
Sunday.  
_______________________________________________________
Bernstein is a free-lance writer in Solon. 
To reach Harvey Bernstein:
hjb0416@yahoo.com