Bridge

West	North	East	South
	1	Pass	1
Pass	2	All Pass

Opening Lead: 4

Just the other day I was watching my wife play in the 1998 Spring Nationals in Reno. No, we don’t have a time machine but we do have Bridge Baron 12 installed on our computer.

Playing actual deals from past competitions is just one of the great features of this lastest generation of the famous software. Among the many others options, you can also play against the computer, practise your favourite bidding conventions or take a declarer play lesson from Easley Blackwood.

Bridge Baron 12 is compatible with either Windows or Mac systems and although generally unavailable in stores, can be ordered from Oddy Bridge Books at 1-900-463-9815. In light of the thousands of hours of entertainment and instruction you will enjoy in the company of the Baron, the $94.95 (Canadian) price tag makes it good value.

When you’re playing the tournament deals like today’s, the opponents will do both good and bad things - just like in real life! If you play well and capitalize on their errors, you will score well on the comparison chart listing your result along with those from, for example, the 1998 Reno event.

The opening lead - yes, I know you or I might have led three rounds of trumps - was taken in dummy and a club led to the Ace for a club ruff. A diamond to the King for a second ruff and another diamond saw East over-eagerly ruff with his singleton trump and accidentally endplay himself. From that point, declarer has no difficulty restricting his further losers to two trumps for a total of ten tricks and a very fine tournament result. Try it - you’ll like it!