Better Bridge in Barry County
By
Gerald Stein
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North
♠ A 10 8 5
♥ A 3 2
♦ K J 6
♣ 10 9 8
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West
♠ K Q J 7
♥ J 7 4
♦ 9 8
♣ J 7 3 2
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East
♠ 6 4 2
♥ Q 10
♦ 10 7 5 4 3 2
♣ 6 4
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South
♠ 9 3
♥ K 9 8 6 5
♦ A Q
♣ A K Q 5
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Dealer:
Vulnerable:
Lead:
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West
North/South
K♠
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North
1♣
3♥
Pass
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East
Pass
Pass
Pass
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South
2♥
4♥
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West
Pass
Pass
Pass
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Paul Soloway (1941-2007) was one of the leading
bridge players of the past. With over 65,000 masterpoints given out by the
American Contract Bridge League for his many wins in world-wide bridge
tournaments and competitions, Paul Soloway gave much to the bridge community
during his time as a bridge player. One of his best known contributions to the
bridge world was the Soloway Jump Shift, aptly named after him. Once popular in
the days of Charles Goren, the Soloway Jump Shift has disappeared from a lot of
players’ bag of conventions. In today’s hand, however, three of the
twenty-eight South players dusted off the Soloway Jump Shift and put it to good
use.
After West passed as the opening bidder, North
opened with 1♣, a promise of at least three clubs and a minimum of twelve
points. With East passing, the opportunity for using the Soloway Jump Shift
emerged for South. With 18 high card points, South was prepared to jump shift
to the 2♥ level. Just what was South promising
to his partner North?
As with all conventions, both partners needed to be
on board to communicate in the bidding process. South had just promised North
by jumping and shifting to the 2♥ level that he
had five hearts, 17 or 18 total points, and that this was a forcing bid. North,
with three hearts, promptly raised the hearts to 3♥,
and South raised to 4♥. No mention was made of
the club suit because a major fit had been found easily by South’s bid.
Besides, North’s club suit could be just three cards as it turned out to be.
With a solid hand in the South, did North/South stop
too soon? Did they miss out on a heart slam? Let’s see how the play of the hand
turned out.
With West leading the K♠, it was evident that there
was at least the Q♠ behind that lead. North tabled his twelve high card points,
and South promptly thanked him and prepared to make a plan to take a minimum of
ten tricks with hearts as trump. It was evident that there was a spade loser,
no diamond losers, no club losers, but there were some gaps in the heart suit.
South would play for a three-two split in the heart suit, his best hope for
losing just one heart trick.
South called for the A♠ and won the first trick in
the dummy. Two rounds of drawing trump saw the three-two split as expected with
the J♥ as the outstanding trump. South had won
the second heart trick in his hand with the K♥.
He played the A♦ next and played the 6♦ from the dummy. He next led the Q♦ from his hand and overtook the Q♦ with the K♦. The J♦ was then led, and South discarded the losing spade
from his hand, making that loser go away. With no more diamonds, West trumped
with the J♥ winning the trick for East/West.
Leading the Q♠ was West’s next move, but it was too
late, and South trumped with a small heart. He played the A♣, the K♣, and the Q♣
next. When the J♣ did not surface, South led the 5♣ anyway and trumped it with
the last heart on the board. The final two tricks were won in the South hand
with his two remaining trumps. South had just taken twelve of the thirteen
tricks. Did the South declarer miss the small slam this time?
Indeed, South missed the small slam, but so did most
of the field. Only three pairs found the small slam of 6♥ for a fine score of 1430 and a 96% game. The three pairs who
found the 4♥ plus two scored next best with a
score of 680 and an 84% game. Others played in no trump and several even
attempted to try a grand slam of 7♥ only to go
down to defeat.
The interesting thing about this hand is that only
three South declarers of the 28 teams who played this hand made use of the
Soloway Jump Shift convention. Today’s South made use of this convention to describe
accurately his hand to his partner. While not reaching their full potential,
still today’s North/South pair ended up ahead of most of the field for a fine
performance.
Gerald Stein
November 22, 2014
Number of words: 830
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