The Broward County Final of the Grand National Pairs Championship was held at the Ft. Lauderdale Bridge Club on Sunday, October 14. This two-session event would qualify the top 20 pairs to advance to the State Final in Tampa later this year.
The top three finishers were: 1. Helen Shanbrom, Emily Nevins; 2. Gracie Gabbai, Fred McBride; 3. Jackie Molovinsky, Evelyn Patten.
Some of the deals were quite challenging, including this gem from the second session. Several pairs went for all the marbles by bidding seven notrump — not unreasonable with the North cards after partner has opened the bidding.
West chose to lead a club, taken by dummy’s king, and declarer had little choice but to try the heart finesse. When this held, South had 12 sure tricks (assuming the diamonds ran); but where would the 13th trick come from? With hearts splitting four-two, the contract seems hopeless.
Enter, the compound squeeze! To facilitate following the play, readers may wish to lay out the diagram with a deck of playing cards.
After finessing the heart jack, South cashes the heart king to discard a club from dummy. The diamond suit is then run, South throwing two hearts and a spade. East is caught in a triple squeeze and must find two discards — the best he can do is discard two spades (other variations are left for the reader to solve).
The spade ace is then cashed, followed by a spade to the king, and East is squeezed again (poor guy). East can postpone the denouement by discarding a club, but now it is West’s turn to get crunched. The heart ace neatly squeezes West in the black suits and the optimistic contract is made.
© 1984 Richard Pavlicek
by Richard Pavlicek by Richard Pavlicek