KARACHI, Aug 3: Pakistan State Oil (PSO) made winning start in the Aslam Memorial Bridge Tournament by winning its opening match against Mazhar 25-05 at Aslam Memorial Bridge Hall National Stadium Friday night.

On the other table, Dr.Ilyas IV defeated Shabbir by the same margin.

Solox defeated Al-Mehran 23-07 and Nazimabad Club Giants had the better of Jamal 21-9.

Fancied Allana and Lipton faced tough opposition from their respective rivals, Arzoo and Four Bidders collecting 17 and 14 VP.

Allana, having Jan-e-Alam Fazli-Rehman Allana, Rashid Jafer, Sultan Siddiqui are favourites. This is the only team which is contesting World Bridge Championship at Montreal later this month.

Second in the line of hopefuls are Nazimabad Club Giants with Masud Saleem, Shahin Iqbal, Mohammed Ismail and Ziaullah Baig. Lipton the winners of last bridge tornament are another strong contenders.