The two session Men’s and Ladies’ Pairs were held at the Bermuda Bridge Club last Saturday and when the smoke had cleared, Stephanie Kyme/Judy Bussell and Alan Douglas/David Sykes were sitting on top of the two divisions.The margin of victory in the Men’s Pairs was emphatic, but the finish in the Ladies’ Pairs could not have been closer at the top.In the 11 Pair Ladies event Bussell/Kyme posted a 59.38 per cent game in the second session to leap past the three pairs ahead of them at the halfway point. Their total score of 91 was just 1.5 points ahead of Marge Way/Molly Taussig, whose winning second session of 61.25 per cent came up just short.A hair’s breadth behind on 89 were first session leaders Marilynn Simmons/Pat Siddle, two excellent sessions from this pair, and in fourth were Wendy Gray and Dory Lusher.The eight Pair Men’s division was a bit different, Ed Betteto/Fabian Hupe had a 4 per cent lead over Douglas/Sykes after the first session with Mike Viotti/John Burville a further 6 per cent behind.Douglas/Sykes then posted a stunning 69.57 per cent game in the afternoon session to finish on 80.33 points, well ahead of Hupe/Betteto on 71.5 and Viotti/Burville on 66.17.Many congratulations to the winners, both pairs are serial winners at the club and have represented Bermuda on many occasions and both leader boards were remarkable for the domination of experienced pairs, with no newcomers figuring at the top of either division. This week’s hand is about planning the play as a declarer, and follows the advice of “if everything looks dire, plan for the best lie of the other hands, and if everything looks great, plan for what could go wrong”.The declarer here took that advice and made a contract that not many others in the room did.Figure 1: Dealer South E/W VulNorth’s 2NT was game invitational and South made the aggressive jump to game based on his sixth trump and singleton Spade, and he was lucky to find partner with the Spade Ace, instead of something like QJxx, and also a couple of good cards in Hearts.West led the King of Spades. Declarer could see ten easy tricks on a 3-2 trump division, so he turned his attention to what could be done if trumps were 4-1.There were two ways to succeed in that event: a 3-3 Club break or to make all of his low trumps by ruffing Spades in hand.As entries to dummy were at a premium, after winning the first trick with dummy’s Ace of Spades, declarer ruffed a Spade in hand at trick two.He continued by cashing the Ace and King of Hearts in that order.Once the 4-1 break in trumps was revealed, declarer ruffed a second Spade low in hand.After cashing the Queen of trumps, declarer took the precaution of playing off his Ace of Diamonds, followed by the King of Clubs.After crossing to dummy with a Club to the Ace, declarer led dummy’s remaining Spade — East was then stymied. If he had discarded, declarer would have made the seven of trumps for his tenth trick.So East ruffed in with the Jack of trumps.Declarer discarded his Club loser and claimed the seven of trumps as his tenth trick. Of course, if the trumps had been 3-2, declarer would have ruffed a Spade at trick five, drawn the last trump with his Queen and claimed ten tricks. Great planning and execution, which South needed in order to justify his aggressive bidding.