Bridge Without Sam

Two Saturdays ago, we held our second annual Caltech-UCLA Pro-Am. 13 of the area's best players came and played a few hands with each of 35 students from Caltech and UCLA. Tom Zavisca, a freshman from Caltech, won the event going away; he had an impregnable lead going into the last round. The Pro prize was won by Beverly Rosenberg, who has competed for the United States in Ladies' World Championships. After the game, four of the Pros led a panel show giving away tips to all the students. The panel show was moderated by John Mohan, previously World Champion.

This week's hand sparked the most interest during the panel show.

IMP pairs

	4 J843 AK54 K952
QJ1095 105 8762 107		8 AKQ9762 93 Q63
	AK7632 --- QJ10 AJ84

West	North	East	South
---	---	1	1
Pass	1NT	2	3
Pass	3	Dbl	3
Pass	4	Pass	Pass
Dbl	Pass	Pass	Pass

The opening lead was the

10. Declarer should be able to see that he is in a very good contract, the double notwithstanding. Perhaps the best play, and how it went at one table was, ruff the first heart and cash the two high trumps. After recoiling from the bad news, cash two diamonds ending in dummy, and ruff a heart in hand. Then, cash as many diamonds as possible. Since lefty follows to all four, ruff a heart in hand and play a club to dummy. Ruff a third heart, just in case LHO has three. If it gets overruffed, the club Ace will win the tenth trick, and if the ruff holds up, that is ten tricks. If both opponents follow to three diamonds, or if LHO ruffs the third, LHO will eventually have to lead clubs into the AJ. Other variations are possible, but the hand can be made on most normal distributions.