Bridge - Goldman Pairs at Eastern States Regional The Goldman Pairs is the oldest bridge pair event still being held. The first was played in 1929. The winners of the 84th edition, last Sunday at the Eastern States Regional in Manhattan, were Franco Baseggio and Andrew Stark of New York City. They finished one and a half boards ahead of George Krizel of Feasterville-Trevose, Pa., and Albert Shekhter of New York City. Third were Murray Melton of Las Vegas and Marty Seligman of Philadelphia. The winners also led after the first day, Saturday, which is unusual. The diagramed deal occurred during the second qualifying session. Baseggio (South) opened one heart, and Stark (North) responded two diamonds, natural and game-forcing. If you had been East, what would you have done now? There is a strong case for passing. You know partner has a very weak hand, and if your side ends on defense, entering the auction will help the opposing declarer to place the cards. But if you bid, hoping to find a profitable sacrifice, surely it is best to show your two-suiter with a two-heart Michaels Cue-Bid or an unusual two no-trump, according to partnership preference. However, East, a six-time national champion, overcalled two spades. Now South rebid two no-trump, fearing that in a heart contract the defenders might begin with one or two rounds of spades and a spade ruff. North was happy to raise to three no-trump. West led the spade seven. East won with his ace and shifted deceptively to the club queen, under which West played the revealing four, using standard signals. Declarer won with his ace and started to run the hearts. When East threw a spade and a club, South cashed his spade queen to get the count in that suit. Then he played off the rest of the hearts, unblocking the spade king from the dummy, and the spade jack, bringing everyone down to three cards. Dummy had the ace-queen-ten of diamonds, declarer two diamonds and the club ten. What could East keep? East was squeezed. If he had discarded a diamond, South would have played a diamond to dummy's ace and won 12 tricks. So East pitched the club jack. But now declarer led his club to endplay East for a diamond lead into dummy's ace-queen. Plus 460 was worth 24.5 match points out of 26. If the opening lead had been a club, declarer would have needed a similar endplay to make his contract. The curious can work it out.