Judy Gealy Newest Life Master

Congratulations Judy for your achievement. You have now joined your favorite partner at this level. The two of you can work on your next goal, Bronze Life Master.

Signaling your partner in defending a contract is one of the most important tools in defense. One of these is the Suit Preference Signal. Let’s say in defending a 4Heart contract, you hold A K J 9 2 in Spades. When you lead the A and then the K and partner with a high/low discard sequence shows a doubleton, what do you lead next? Of course a Spade so partner can trump it, but which Spade? Since you have a void in Diamonds, lead the J your next highest card in the Spade suit. This tells partner you want him to come back to you in the highest outside suit which would be a Diamond. You will then use a trump and defeat the contract.

A high card discard in a side suit says,” I like this suit, lead it when able.”

Conversely a low card would say, ”I don’t like this suit find another one.” As always this takes practice and may not always be possible to do. May luck be on your side.

Our Evergreen bridge club welcomed eight players from the Concord Bridge Club on Friday, June 30. We were very glad to have them with us since their club was closed. The competition was heightened with their presence.

Winning N/S: 1st Ruth Bowles and Marie Pugh, 2nd Trudy and Harold Mills from Concord,3rd Jean and Loyd Hill; E/W strat A 1st Judy Hurder and Fern Albracht, 2nd Becky Creekmore and Dick Brisbin, 3rd John and Myrnie McLaughlin and strat B 1st Nancy Brandt and Tom Johnson, 2nd Genny Mozolak and Joe O’Brien. Featured is board # 21 from Friday’s game. N/S vulnerable North dealer

NORTH:

S A 7

H  K J 8 4 3 2

D Q 9

C T 5 4

WEST:             EAST:

S J 8 3              S Q 9

H Q T 9 7          H A 6 5

D K J 8 4          D A 7 6 5 2

C J 8                  C  A K 2

SOUTH:

S K T 6 5 4 2

H  —

D  T 3

C  Q 9 7 6 3

Ruth Bowles and Marie Pugh set E/W contract 2 tricks for best N/S while McLaughlins made 3NE +1 for best E/W. There was no July 4 Women’s Club game.